Rats Show Their Kind Side

  
The rodents appear to display real concern for trapped peers.


Summary: Rats may have a bad reputation, but according to a report in the Dec. 9 Science magazine, they have been shown to be capable of real empathy and self-sacrifice, more than evolution theory would have predicted.


In 2007 neuroscientist Peggy Mason of the U. of Chicago and Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal, a PhD student in integrative neuroscience, worked together on research to test the capacity of these rodents for feelings. In one study a rat was trapped inside a cage in the middle of a pen while another rat was allowed to run free around the cage. The imprisoned rat could be let out only if the free rat applied pressure to a cage door. Most of the free rats circled the cage, gnawing at it and sticking their paws, noses and whiskers through any openings. After a week, 23 of 30 rats learned to open the cage by head-butting the cage door or applying weight to it. They showed no interest in empty cages or cages containing toy rats.


In a second test Mason placed rats in a pen with two cages.  One cage contained another rat while the other cage contained milk chocolate chips, a favorite treat for these particular rodents. The free rats could easily have eaten all the chocolate by themselves before freeing their peers. Instead, most of the rats opened both cages and shared the chocolate chips. Sometimes the free rats even placed the chips near their recently sprung peers “as if delivering it.”


McGill U. psychologist Jeffrey Mogil, who had previously shown mice could recognize their peers’ pain, did have questions about the findings. What was the motivation for the prosocial behavior of the rats — did the free rats open the cages because of empathy or to silence the alarm calls of the trapped rats?  Why did all six female rats liberate their peers but only 17 of the 24 male rats — are females generally more empathic than males? Can mice as well as rats  demonstrate this apparent ability for altruism (concern for others)?


Mason’s study is just one of several recent experiments which are changing how scientists think of empathy and altruism in the animal kingdom. Once most people thought altruism was a uniquely human characteristic, but now it seems that many animals have “evolved” instincts to help others, even at a cost to themselves, instincts that humans have “inherited.” "The bottom line is that helping an individual in distress is part of our biology," Mason says. "It's not something that develops or doesn't develop because of culture." 


To read the entire article, click on SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.


Comment: As we know, secular scientists and creation scientists will often look at the same data and come to different conclusions based on their beliefs and assumptions. We can’t be surprised that evolutionists looking at this experiment are seeing a pattern of empathy developing in the animal world and being passed on via evolution to humans. On the other hand, evolutionists shouldn’t be surprised that Bible believers see a pattern of God instilling knowledge in all his created beings and not just humans.


Animals don’t always seem altruistic. What about the male lions who insist on eating first even though it was the females that made the kill?  Cats don’t always get along well with each other and may even act aggressive toward unrelated newborns. And in many animal groups leadership is achieved only through physical combat.


Of course, the same can be said for us humans, considering the murderers, thieves, and “Scrooges” among us. We can‘t read the minds of the rats to see what they are thinking when they do their acts of apparent kindness, but the same could be true for some human activity. A man who makes a generous donation to a charity or a school, but only if he gets his name in the paper or on a plaque, cannot be evaluated in the same way as a person who makes an anonymous gift.


For Christians, a God-pleasing gift or act of kindness must be done for the proper reasons. “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). So, the altruistic things we do must be done out of faith and love for our God and Savior and not because we expect to earn anything because of them. “Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you truly love me?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep’” (John 21:16)  The best way to show love for Jesus and care for His sheep is to make sure they hear the good news of salvation.


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QUESTION OF THE DAY


How does the risk of radiation from airport scanners compare to other radiation risks?


It would take 50 scans at the airport to equal the radiation exposure from a single dental X-ray and 1,000 such scans to equal the exposure from a chest X-ray. In fact, a traveler is exposed to 100 times more radiation just traveling in a plane 30,000 feet above the Earth.  It is impossible to avoid all radiation, as there are radioactive substances in the soil and cosmic rays from outer space.


Source: Dr. Anthony Konaroff, (Racine) Journal-Times


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