Rats demonstrate empathy

Rats demonstrate empathy
www.livescience.com/17378-rats-show-empathy,html
A study published in the December 8, 2010, issue of Science by
neuroscientist Peggy Mason from the University of Chicago found
rats exhibit empathy. The research team housed pairs of rats for two
weeks to let them create a friendly bond. Then they were placed in a
closed test arena daily with one rat free to roam and the other
enclosed in a clear tube that could only be opened from the outside.
The free rat was able to suppress its natural response or emotional
contagion to the caged rat's fear and began exploring the arena.
After an average of seven days, the free rat learned to free its friend
from the tube without any rewards involved. The free rat even released
the captive rat if it led into a separate arena. To the researchers surprise,
when the free rat was presented with a rat-holding container and a container
holding chocolate, the rat opened both containers and shared its
favorite snack. Empathy has been associated with humans and other
primates, but now research shows that rats are also capable of helping
other rats. Mason is not sure if the rats are acting to relieve their own
distress or the distress of their cage-mates, but would like to study
it further and determine if the rats would behave the same if they
were not cage-mates first.