By Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Altruism is the conscious and deliberate giving of something you may need yourself but are prepared to donate for another’s wellbeing. Very few humans are altruistic. I see people who give their old clothes to their own servants, or less fortunate relatives, and they think they are being very generous. People celebrate their birthdays by calling a few poor children to share their goodies — that is not altruism. Nor is giving things to your children that once belonged to you — that is genetic self-interest.
Altruism exists only when the donor expects nothing from the recipient and is not related. Animals do it much more gracefully than humans.
Vampire bats drink the blood of mammals, usually cattle, horses and deer. These small creatures, less than 4 inches long and 40 gm in weight, live in the jungles of South America. They hunt at night and are adept at crawling on a body till they find a suitable blood vessel which they puncture softly and lap up the trickling blood.
Up to 2,000 animals live in the same roosting area. If a vampire bat does not find a mammal it goes without a meal for one night. But it takes three days for a bat to starve to death and a weakened creature cannot even fly to find a host. And so, every now and then, a bat that has failed to find blood will beg a meal from a stranger in the roost. The donor will, without question, regurgitate blood and share the meal. A well documented case is that of a group of sperm whales off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal, who took a handicapped adult bottlenose dolphin into their group.
The dolphin played with the whales and the calves. When it rubbed its body against the whales, they would sometimes even return the gesture. There was no benefit to the whales of forming this bond with the handicapped dolphin. Dolphins are known for their compassion. In 2008, one bottlenose dolphin came to the rescue of two beached whales in New Zealand and led them into safe waters. Without the dolphin’s guidance, the whales would have died.
(To be concluded)
