Animal rights, animal wrongs: Mammals ‘have morals’
Morality may not be a uniquely human trait according to recent research suggesting mammals as varied as wolves, primates, mice, bats and whales know the difference between right and wrong.
Writing in a new book entitled “Wild Justice,” ecologist Marc Bekoff of the University of Colorado claims that morals are hard-wired into the brains of all mammals, allowing aggressive and competitive creatures to live together in groups and providing a social glue that holds them together, according to a story in the Daily Telegraph.
Bekoff claims to have compiled evidence in which different animals exhibit traits such as a sense of fairness, empathy or helping another animal in distress – even sometimes a creature of a different species.
For instance, stronger wolves during play will often handicap themselves, allowing weaker members of a pack to bite them – providing they don’t bite too hard.
Experiments with domestic dogs also show they will share treats between them, suggesting a sense of fairness.
Studies of elephant herds have revealed cases of elephants helping injured or ill members of the group. In 2003 a herd even rescued a captive antelope in Kenya by unfastening the latches of metal gates behind which it was trapped.
In an experiment with rats, a group of rodents given food which triggered electric shocks in another group of rats whenever it was eaten chose not to eat rather than cause pain to another of their species.
Vampire bats successful in their hunt for blood are known to share their spoils with bats who are not successful.
And studies of chimpanzees have revealed that male chimps will not subject other chimps with disabilities to the same intimidating displays of aggression they exhibit towards other apes.
Studies of whale brains have also demonstrated that the creatures have a large number of spindle cells, which were thought to be unique to humans and other primates and which are believed to play an important role in empathising.
“The belief that humans have morality and animals don’t is a long-standing assumption, but there is a growing amount of evidence that is showing us that this simply cannot be the case,” Bekoff told the Telegraph.
“Just as in humans, the moral nuances of a particular culture or group will be different from another, but they are certainly there. Moral codes are species specific, so they can be difficult to compare with each other or with humans.”
But Bekoff’s conclusions remain controversial. “I don’t believe animals are moral in the sense we humans are – with well developed and reasoned sense of right and wrong – rather that human morality incorporates a set of psychological tendencies and capacities such as empathy, reciprocity, a desire for co-operation and harmony that are older than our species,” said Professor Frans de Waal, a primate behaviourist at Emory University in Georgia.
“Human morality was not formed from scratch, but grew out of our primate psychology. Primate psychology has ancient roots, and I agree that other animals show many of the same tendencies and have an intense sociality.”
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