I always wonder if it is because they dont see the differences are that they genuinely dont care at all
In: Biology
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It doesn’t really happen all that often in the wild.
On the rare occasions that it does, it’s because it’s not necessarily that obvious to an animal that a different animal belongs to a different species, and because the animals that evolved to nurture young often do so based on instinctive responses that are easy to trick under the right circumstances.
Why not? Humans do it. And you’d think we would know better.
Probably the same reason that humans do.
Human babies are cute. This is not an accident. They give off signals of health, like chubby cheeks, to convince us they’re good investments. Adults in turn are wired to find their proportions uniquely endearing, so we don’t abandon them on a mountainside as soon as they start screaming.
Creatures which mimic babies’ proportions tend to register to us as cute. Domed heads, big eyes, little noses. Short neck, large head:body ratio. Neoteny.
Behold the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. This creature has no function except as a furbaby.
Anything that triggers a species’ equivalent of an “awwwwww” reflex can get itself adopted.
Sometimes people misinterpret what they see as adopting or even friendly. If I recall Cuckoo birds lay an egg in another type of birds nest. The bird just thinks it is one of her own. When the Cuckoo egg hatches it instinctively pushes the other eggs or hatchlings out of the nest and apparently the birds can’t tell it is not their own chick so provide for it obliviously and raise it thinking it is their own chick.
Another thing people misinterpret are the videos where a cheetah or lion does not kill some baby animal and seems to just hang out with it. This is not the cat adopting, I think they play with it for a while, like many cats would, then kill it and eat it. I have seen at least one of these where the baby followed and stayed with the cat but the video was long enough so you see it kill it later.
Another misconception is seeing some animals work together in some instances to ward off danger. This may appear like friendly cooperation but this is a mutually beneficial behavior at the moment for both. When that danger is gone they will kill and eat each other if given the opportunity.
*Zoology definition: behaviour of an animal that benefits another at its own expense.
‘’Reciprocal altruism.’’
I feel most humans pray to win great fortunes and benefits for themselves and do great deeds to make themselves feel wonderful and important. Lesser animals don’t. They have nothing to gain from an apparent altruistic act. They just do it.
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