Alexander Wilson
By Julia Brown
Sometimes animals seem to heroically help creatures that are not only unrelated to them, but belong to another species. No one is yet sure why these animals do it. Robert Pitman saw humpback whales saving a seal from a group of killer whales and suggests it might be a case of inadvertent altruism. Here are five other examples of animals going beyond their Darwinian duty.
Read more: I saw humpback whales save a seal from death by killer whale
Dolphin guides stranded pilot whales
In 2008, two pygmy sperm whales became stranded on a beach in New Zealand. Local people tried to help the mother and her calf reach deeper water, but the distressed animals seemed unable to get past a long sandbank blocking their escape, according to the Associated Press. Then a bottlenose dolphin arrived. It approached the whales, then appeared to guide them along the sandbank and out into open water.
Bear lifts crow out of water
In 2014, a bear was filmed at Budapest Zoo in Hungary apparently helping a crow that had fallen into the pool in its enclosure and was struggling to get out. After fishing out the bird, the bear made no move to eat or interact further with the crow.
Sperm whales adopt malformed dolphin
In 2011, two researchers from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Germany travelled to the Azores to observe sperm whales. They started following a group that included several whale calves and were surprised to see among them an adult male bottlenose dolphin with a twisted spine (pictured above). ...
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