ALTRUISM IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM Fatima Sheriff explores exhibitions of altruism in different animal species and draws comparisons with the current Covid-19 pandemic.
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n these precarious times, my personal definition of ‘good’ has been contextualised by the pandemic. If we have learnt any lessons from the past year, it is that selflessness is the root of our salvation. In the animal kingdom, while this altruism loses the human sense of m o r a l i t y, different species h a v e evolved against individualistic self-preservation for the sake of group survival. Here I will delve into a few instances where we can learn a thing or two from our animal neighbours...
his noble nature”. However, on a collective level, a group with “many members ready to give aid to each other and sacrifice themselves for the common good would be victorious”, enables them to navigate the perils of the wilderness and overcome the challenges of natural selection. This idea of working for the collective over the individual is exemplified in ants, as their ability to put others before themselves helps them survive outbreaks of disease. As Sir David King of Independent SAGE reiterated in a recent seminar, a lockdown like ours in the UK is a blunt instrument, one that wouldn’t be necessary had there been correct tracing and isolation of the sick. While our government may struggle with these logistics, a paper from 2018 showed how quickly and effectively a colony of ants changes their behaviour when presented with a pathogen.
“Selflessness is the root of our salvation.”
Animal altruism is when the social behaviour of an individual reduces the fitness of that individual, while boosting the fitness of another. Darwin discusses this phenomenon in The Descent of Man (1871), explaining how on an individual level, it does not follow his theories of evolution; being ready to risk their own safety “would leave that creature no offspring to inherit
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Though the mechanism of their recognition is unknown, even before they exhibit symptoms, the sick ants self-isolate. Meanwhile, healthy ants protect the queen and nurses by keeping
them away from the foragers, who could bring the disease from outside, much like how we have taken to shielding our vulnerable communities. In an eerie pre-pandemic premonition, lead author Stroeymeyt mentioned that we could learn from “how quickly they adapted their societal structure to minimise the spread”. She conceded “we can’t really ask sick people to die in isolation the way the ants do” and in this way, the conscious, human altruism of front-line workers triumphs in its level of personal risk and empathy. Though their name gives them a fearsome reputation, vampire bats are my next example of altruism. Unrelated females form communities and care for their young longer than other bats and they have been long studied for their fascinating social systems. For instance, a study by Ripperger et al. from 2019 found that a group of bats kept in captivity maintained their relationships when they were released into the wild. These tight-knit friendships are often built on feeding, grooming and roosting together. They have even been known to buddy up and share food, because a vampire bat can starve to
