Voles show signs of empathy
It has long been known that certain animals can show empathy such as dogs, elephants, chimpanzees and dolphins. Now it has been discovered that prairie voles would console one another after experiencing stress. A study team set up an experiment where a pair of voles where isolated from each other and one of them was exposed to mild shocks. After the two were reunited, the voles who hadn’t been shocked would lick the other sooner and for longer durations than a control group who were separated but not exposed to shocks. This behavior did not happen between voles that were strangers. It was also noted that the observing vole would match the behavior of its stressed partner, even though it hadn’t itself experienced any stress. It would groom itself repeatedly. It froze whenever it heard a tone that signalled an incoming shock. And it even developed higher levels of stress hormones. This now has been described as emotional empathy or gut instinctual feeling.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/voles-show-signs-empathy-randy-bilesky?published=t
http://www.delta-optimist.com/opinion/blogs/blog-voles-show-signs-of-empathy-1.2280553
