Non-humans Who Behave Like Humans

[KurtRoss]

I need ideas.

 

Below is a link to the first of a series of short videos about characteristics (mostly behavioral) that humans share with other organisms.

 

 

What are some other organisms I can focus on in future videos?

 

Thanks in advance,

-Kurt

Edited June 5, 2014 by KurtRoss

[Acme]

More cross-species altruism.

 

Dog attacks boy, cat attacks dog

[Bill Angel]

Relevant to the concept of organisms " giving up their life for another" ants and bees that do not breed as individuals will sacrifice their lives to help ensure the survival of their colonies and their breeding queen.

[Iota]

 

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Edited June 5, 2014 by Iota

[Ophiolite]

Any and all primates.

[KurtRoss]

These are good ideas, but I think I'd like to move away from altruism for the next couple videos.

 

 

What other interesting traits do humans share with other organisms?

[CharonY]

Isn't the title contradictory? I mean, it presupposes that these behaviors are somewhat specific to humans and then proceeds to show the opposite. While I guess I understand why one may want to come up with such a title it is still mildly irritating.

 

That being said, if one wants to focus on altruism as a trait, there is a whole bunch of research out there. Vampire bats are a textbook example. Then there are examples from the prokaryotic realm (although rules are different there) including e.g. fruiting body forming bacteria, such as myxobacteria or in cases of toxin or other common goods production.

 

Then there are plenty of studies about bonding, friendship and resulting altruistic behavior in many mammals (models that I know of include a number of monkey species, primates, horses, dolphins, elephants and hyena). A recent focus has been on the physiology of these behaviors further concluding that we share a deep history in the evolution of friendship and social behavior (see e.g. Massen et al. BEHAVIOUR Volume: 147 Issue: 11 Pages: 1379-1412).

 

 

If we broaden up the categories the bottom line is not that we share a lot with animals, but rather that there is little that makes us special (you could really take any two random species and find the same level of similarities/dissimilarities).

 

It is surely our (necessarily) anthropocentric worldview that makes it appealing to compare everything to us. I am not sure whether it is really helpful, though.

[Ringer]

You can pick virtually any human trait and find it (or a variation of the theme) in another organism. You can find crows sledding, sloths swimming, dolphins raping, sharks using team-work, etc, etc, etc.