Rats + Empathy
Upon research, I was surprised to find that rats will attempt the save their companions if it is necessary, proving how creatures other than humans can show empathy. Empathy suggests the ability to understand or share feelings, and these studies suggest that the rats complete this heroic action due to the fact that rodents so call "crave" companionship. In the specific article I read about, two rats where put in a box that had two compartments that were divided by a transparent wall in the middle. One side of the box was chosen at random, and was filled to the top with water forcing one rat to tread water and struggle to breath. The only way to prevent this water from filling one side of the box is for the other rat, which was on the other dry side, to open the small door on the translucent door and release the water. I found it very interesting that as this experiment took place, it did not take the dry rat long to realize that the other was in distress while being soaked with water, leading for the dry rat to soon come to the others rescue. Something even more fascinating, to really put the experiment to the test, scientists even tempted the dry rat with a chocolate treat in hopes of the rat choosing the chocolate over helping its companion. Despite the temptation, the rat chose to save his friend 50-80%. This also surprised me, because upon first glance of this experiment, I had no idea a rat had the ability to understand that a companion could be in danger and choose to not be selfish. Although I found this experiment intriguing, another aspect I found interesting was that some rats would only help the other if they were so called "familiar" with the other rat. For example, scientist found that if a white rat was born and raised among only white rats, it would not complete any heroic actions of trying to safe his drowning friend with black fur. In concluding this experiment, this segregation allowed the scientists to assume that rats, similar to humans, can be biased on what they do or do not act on, their empathy.
Here is an image of what you may have observed if you were conducting the experiment. As you can see, you can notice the box the two rats where held in with the translucent wall dividing them in the middle.
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