It's totally possible in the case of the whales that it simply makes them feel good. It might trigger the part of their brain that rewards them for caring for and protecting their own young. The same way humans feel good about helping a stranger change a tire or rescue an animal in danger.
While i don't disagree, i believe it also can be related to sentience, they might be able to understand individuality similarly to how we do and comprehend mortality vulnerability and empathy
As a 7-yo kid who lived near Rio Vista, CA, one of my fondest memories was following the saga of Humphrey, the Humpback. He got lost in the Delta again in the 1990s. I hope he's doing well now. Humpbacks are known for their kindness. That's why a Humpback gave Marlin and Dory a ride to Australia in "Finding Nemo."
The 'survival of the fittest' is one of the most misunderstood concepts in science. Thanks for clearing this up. I personally think that Humpback Whales help seals because they like them and want to protect them. Who knows, they might actually think they are cute like we think cats and dogs are. Animals are a lot more like humans than we realize.
When I was a boy, I remember one time watching a BBC nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough. There was one scene where a herd of elephants were drinking at an oasis, when suddenly a baby elephant slipped and fell into the mud. This young elephant came from another herd. It didn't have any familial ties with any of the elephants around, yet when the other elephants saw it sinking in the mud, it was a call to action as their only motivation was to prevent this little elephant from dying. A few of the adults came to its rescue, trying to pull it out of the mud with their trunks. But as it became evident that even a baby elephant weighed a lot, the entire herd got involved and before long they managed to save the young elephant. Attenborough remarked on how elephants understand the concept of death. Some even visit graveyards and interact with the bones of the deceased as it was shown in the documentary.
I once saw a squirrel under a tree next to the curb outside my house that was injured from falling from the tree or getting hit or something like that. He was laying there for so long I thought he was deceased and was so sad. As I got into my truck I noticed two other squirrels slowly go up to the injured squirrel and they then started jumping on his chest for couple of minutes. The injured squirrel was revived and ran away with the other two squirrels. I could not believe it.
@@Mayhem-c9bbut they do speak to each other. That’s why they make all that noise. May I suggest looking up “Elephants have names”. The same logic could apply to whales once we have AI figure out their languages.
Lovely insight on the evolution of kindness. Just remember that Reciprocal Altruism refers to how the psychological trait evolved over time, not active planning ahead on the animals part. We evolved kindness the same way. Being liked made you more protected so we evolved to be likable.
Nature is a lot more complex than what most people give credit for. I’m glad that they’re those who pay real close attention to not just receive more accurate data, but it enables to be more open-minded to endless possibilities.
This reminded me of the question "why do babies cry when they hear other babies cry?" And similar questions like why do animals help humans? Why do humans help animals? Perhaps because it is our nature to have empathy for someone and do something about it. And I believe that was intentionally put into all creatures in one way or another.
@@swastikgrover3414 Yup, and if you believe and God(I do) and are familiar you would be familiar with the belief that God created the earth for humans to take care of it. Amongst other things that tie into that belief such as we are a reflection of God. And if you want to expand on that more, God put himself into his creations also. Thus explaining why animals help each other. Even when they have nothing In common, nothing to gain
I think the reason why humpback whales attack killer whales is because they just want to chase away a predator they don't like having around, and especially not if they have calves. So I don't think it has anything to do with them wanting to rescue seals because they feel sorry for them.
“Why do Humpback Whales protect other species from Orcas?” “Well, we have two leading theories. The first is that they’re just really nice guys. The second is that they just really hate Orcas. There’s a chance that both theories are correct.”
Orcas prey on baby humpbacks. I'm of the sentiment that humpbacks hate orcas with every fiber of their bodies and will go out of their way to ruin an orca's day.
Isn't it like our immune system. Where we have more or less active so the more active the better but more allergies. The same for kindness. The more kind an animal is the better for the species but also more likely to be kinder to others?
Its most certainly 100% competition. but glad you see the world so friendly :) But even trees compete for sunlight, a species of coral eat neighbor corals to defend "turf", or more easy to see look at us humans etc. The list is endless. And if you dig deep within altruistic research its hard to find any other proof of concept than its a means to an end within a species (humans for example).
Honestly, as the video said, it's survival of the fittest. And notice how all the examples are from communal species where many individuals are living very close together. So there's an incentive to be nice and help others so you aren't ostracized and lose your access to mates. Also, Rasp fish live in pairs and if one rasp is too parasitic and scaring away "customer fish", the other rasp will "break up" and find another rasp to co-op with. Finally, altruistic is incentived when resources are abundant enough and competition is rare. Bonobos are some of the most altruistic apes. It stands to reason that they're environment has more food and almost no competition for that food. Conversely, chimpanzees live in a more food-scarce environment and need to compete with gorillas. So despite bonobos and chimps living across a river from each other, they evolved very different pack structures.
People are social creatures -- animals aren't very different in that aspect. A Human may help another human, and though they're not the same species, the human may choose to help an animal too. Occasionally an animal will help a human, equally it can also help other animals. Being social and mutualism help survival. It's a big world an we're all living in it.
Assigning human values to actions is just something we do since it makes us feel nice/hopeful. It would be just as easy to say the Humpbacks were starving the Orcas. Not to say the scenario mentioned in the video(of Humpbacks genuinely looking out for Orcas) couldn't be true.
Kinda makes sense when you think about it. Humans are very prone to helping other animals just because, and so it's reasonable to assume that an intelligent and empathetic animal might be the same way
I think whales have complex emotions, so helping a non-relative can feel the same as helping a relative. Humans can be emotionally moved by things as abstract as music, paintings, or words on a page. Natural selection only cares that the emotions don't prevent us from reproducing, but that doesn't mean they can't have effects far beyond what drives natural selection.
Well It makes sense from a certain perspective if we can assume that without this behavior, certain predators might overhunt prey populations, especially if (like orcas) they're the kind to kill things for fun.
The more time I spend with humans, the more I love animals. A few days ago, a dog was hit by a car in a highway and his bud never left his side, even after the dog unfortunately died. Honestly, most humans aren't capable of selfless acts.
@TEDEd URGENT: The constellations are schematics that can be connected via the stars and they form devices that can be used for light experiments. Please get this message out to as many as you can. Please see for yourself - connect the dots via the stars.
Reciprocal Altruism was a concept I was trying to explain to my coworkers while they were complaining about our country's involvement in other nation's affairs.
The phrase 'survival of the fittest' is often incorrectly attributed to Darwin. In fact, it was coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer in response to reading Origin of Species five years after the first edition was published.
Hey, from the tree graph, are they siblings? Why did those meerkats in the secong line connected? Can you change it into a plus or a line that connects those partnered meerkats intead? Because those lines at the top means they are from the same source or parent, so are they siblings?
You can tell they're not siblings since there's only one line. They want to make the graph look nice so they didn't add plus signs as that would make the pictures smaller and more cramped.
@SameedChowdhury wow, it's just when i make family trees i draw a plus between two pictures to indicate marriage and a ] downward to signify siblingship and a straight line to indicate who they came from.
If only humans were as altruistic towards each other as other animals. Instead, humans seem to have a unique propensity for cruelty towards each other. No other animal on Earth may be as intelligent as we humans are, but nor does any other animal have the same capacity for cruelty towards their own kin as we humans do.
The cries of hurt or in danger species might come from an inability to distinguish its original mutually beneficial send offs to help. But with it helping non mutual saving and helpful interactions to others who could not reciprocate such help would not be weeded out because the whale doesn’t pose a danger and thusly it’s vaguely helpful genes carry on. Ie if a danger did kill off whales that helped seals then the gene to distinguish whales from seals call for help would be established.
Many people believe the world is cruel and one should only care about oneself. "Law of the jungle". Nature shows us this has been another misinterpretation we had of the world. Animals (and plants) care for anothers and work together. As humans, we should care for the people around us, for their needs and worries. We don't live to get rich and boss on others. Society is built with the objective of making the lives of everyone easier. Nonetheless, just like in the animal kingdom, there's egoistic individuals who would take advantage of an altruist society, in detriment of the other individuals sake. Just like Costa Rican vampire bats, who identify egoistic bats who don't share their meals and stop supporting them, we must build measures to ensure egoistic people cannot take advantage of altruistic policies and use them to harm the rest of society. I wish more economy loving people watch this video.
Actually humpedback whales have generational trauma from orcas cause of the brutal things orcas do to them orcas will gather around young calfs to hunt them and attack lone humpedback just to eat their tongues so when the whale sees the orcas attcking a seal or a penguin they may not be helping the seal but trying to mess up their hunt so the orcas can go hungry and the peguins and seals benefit from this cause orcas toss seals like a ball just for fun so yeah in short humped whales will get agressive with orcas to mess up their hunts cause it's just karma.
Cubs are with bears and lions and tigers and cows on land not out in the sea where their called calves or pups or even cubs if the8r polar bear ora seal pup or a whale calf which is what a baby whale is called not a cub.
It's totally possible in the case of the whales that it simply makes them feel good. It might trigger the part of their brain that rewards them for caring for and protecting their own young. The same way humans feel good about helping a stranger change a tire or rescue an animal in danger.
While i don't disagree, i believe it also can be related to sentience, they might be able to understand individuality similarly to how we do and comprehend mortality vulnerability and empathy
Why not both?
@@InMaTeofDeath
I believe it's a degree of both,
That's called sympathy
@SharkBait78
@SharkBait78 what is the difference between sympathy and empathy (English is a 2nd language)
As a 7-yo kid who lived near Rio Vista, CA, one of my fondest memories was following the saga of Humphrey, the Humpback. He got lost in the Delta again in the 1990s. I hope he's doing well now. Humpbacks are known for their kindness. That's why a Humpback gave Marlin and Dory a ride to Australia in "Finding Nemo."
You existed in the 1990s, and your still a 7 year old??
@@zezo.h3390 Getting old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
@@EricCoop My brother in Christ I have never heard that put so well
@@EricCoopBrilliantly worded man 👍🏻
@@samstromberg5593 Fellow Follower of Out Jewish Carpenter. God Bless!
The 'survival of the fittest' is one of the most misunderstood concepts in science. Thanks for clearing this up. I personally think that Humpback Whales help seals because they like them and want to protect them. Who knows, they might actually think they are cute like we think cats and dogs are. Animals are a lot more like humans than we realize.
Yes. Exactly. Who doesn't like seals. Seals are the sea doggos. "Empathy" is such an important and underated survival instinct.
When I was a boy, I remember one time watching a BBC nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough. There was one scene where a herd of elephants were drinking at an oasis, when suddenly a baby elephant slipped and fell into the mud. This young elephant came from another herd. It didn't have any familial ties with any of the elephants around, yet when the other elephants saw it sinking in the mud, it was a call to action as their only motivation was to prevent this little elephant from dying. A few of the adults came to its rescue, trying to pull it out of the mud with their trunks. But as it became evident that even a baby elephant weighed a lot, the entire herd got involved and before long they managed to save the young elephant. Attenborough remarked on how elephants understand the concept of death. Some even visit graveyards and interact with the bones of the deceased as it was shown in the documentary.
I once saw a squirrel under a tree next to the curb outside my house that was injured from falling from the tree or getting hit or something like that. He was laying there for so long I thought he was deceased and was so sad. As I got into my truck I noticed two other squirrels slowly go up to the injured squirrel and they then started jumping on his chest for couple of minutes. The injured squirrel was revived and ran away with the other two squirrels. I could not believe it.
Yoo😮
They were giving.... CPR???
What if he was faking an injury and they weren't having it?
@@legadric1I don’t know but whatever they did it worked.
Why didn't you go ans check on it than just being sad
Whales are actually one of the most beautiful creatures, inside and out ❤
I see you know a whale from the inside. Is it hot in there?
Because they can't speak to each other and they show each other love
Jonah, is that you?
Sir its illegal to make love to whales 😂😂
@@Mayhem-c9bbut they do speak to each other. That’s why they make all that noise. May I suggest looking up “Elephants have names”. The same logic could apply to whales once we have AI figure out their languages.
Lovely insight on the evolution of kindness. Just remember that Reciprocal Altruism refers to how the psychological trait evolved over time, not active planning ahead on the animals part. We evolved kindness the same way. Being liked made you more protected so we evolved to be likable.
more like the evolution of niceness. kindness is always at the cost of oneself
As soon as I saw the title of this video i thought of vampire bats! They are one of my favourite animals!
Nature is a lot more complex than what most people give credit for. I’m glad that they’re those who pay real close attention to not just receive more accurate data, but it enables to be more open-minded to endless possibilities.
Animals are indeed interesting. In these animals, empathy and reciprocity requires no complex language which we humans have.
Kindness is nature
Agreed 😊
This reminded me of the question "why do babies cry when they hear other babies cry?" And similar questions like why do animals help humans? Why do humans help animals? Perhaps because it is our nature to have empathy for someone and do something about it. And I believe that was intentionally put into all creatures in one way or another.
I believe so too. It makes sense scientifically too cuz it improve the fitness of life on earth as we know it
@@swastikgrover3414 Yup, and if you believe and God(I do) and are familiar you would be familiar with the belief that God created the earth for humans to take care of it. Amongst other things that tie into that belief such as we are a reflection of God. And if you want to expand on that more, God put himself into his creations also. Thus explaining why animals help each other. Even when they have nothing In common, nothing to gain
@Mr.WonderJames yea, and God created animals first, as said in the bibles.
@@Polku-hl3zr Exactly.
I think the reason why humpback whales attack killer whales is because they just want to chase away a predator they don't like having around, and especially not if they have calves.
So I don't think it has anything to do with them wanting to rescue seals because they feel sorry for them.
Could the humpback be angry with the orcas instead of helpful to the seal? Don't orcas sometimes attack baby humpbacks?
Yep, they sure do they will indeed attack and kill the humpback whale calves and eat only their tongues and leave the rest to the sharks.
Which is very wasteful for an pod of orcas to do.
This is why Whales are my favorite ❤️
The world needs more kindness, thanks for the video and the reminder Ted-Ed 😊 Happy Holidays to everyone around the world 😊
animals do kind things because it feels good.
“Why do Humpback Whales protect other species from Orcas?”
“Well, we have two leading theories. The first is that they’re just really nice guys. The second is that they just really hate Orcas. There’s a chance that both theories are correct.”
Whoah. . . the shape of Australia is wild @00:14
i mean.. its pretty accurate if you consider which type of map is most size accurate..
Maybe humpbacks interfere not because they love Seals, but because they hate Orcas.
Orcas prey on baby humpbacks. I'm of the sentiment that humpbacks hate orcas with every fiber of their bodies and will go out of their way to ruin an orca's day.
They are smart it could be both or could be a learned habit
@@DPowered2 Orcas eat humpback pups. Doesn't take much to see why a humpback will go out of it's way to ruin an orca's day.
Yeah maybe they just don’t want the orcas to get a meal
I love wales, along with elephants. They are just amazing creatures. Lovely gentle giants
Interesting! Whales and elephants are both known for being very smart. Maybe kindness is a trait of intelligence 👀
@@nevereverr I bet it may be!
Thanks
Humpback whales just jumped several steps in my list of favorite animals
What a perfect video for the Holidays!🎄
I love TED-Ed
Isn't it like our immune system.
Where we have more or less active so the more active the better but more allergies.
The same for kindness. The more kind an animal is the better for the species but also more likely to be kinder to others?
"sharks are one of the nicest animals in the world"
"So would you swim with them?"
"Nah"
There is a difference between admiration and simping.
There’s a difference between nice and overhated.
What if the shark was a future doctor tho? 🤔
I wish people would help each other
They do, man, sometimes you need to help others, or you just need to look around more.
@Polku-hl3zr i do help
@DanaJangali Yeah, mb mate, eh we do help eachother idk if u were sarcastic or not.
2:20 I’m convinced that those are not legs.
Nature Isn’t competition is cooperation ❤
Its most certainly 100% competition. but glad you see the world so friendly :) But even trees compete for sunlight, a species of coral eat neighbor corals to defend "turf", or more easy to see look at us humans etc. The list is endless. And if you dig deep within altruistic research its hard to find any other proof of concept than its a means to an end within a species (humans for example).
to clarify = altruism is a means to and end to cooperate to win the competition.
Technically it's a team based competition
I love animals!!! They are nicer than most humans can ever be❤❤❤
We could learn one or two things from them
I like it when animals help each other!! Kinda like people help each other!!
Humpback 1: "Why did you save that seal just now?"
Humpback 2: "We went to the same sorority in college."
Honestly, as the video said, it's survival of the fittest. And notice how all the examples are from communal species where many individuals are living very close together. So there's an incentive to be nice and help others so you aren't ostracized and lose your access to mates.
Also, Rasp fish live in pairs and if one rasp is too parasitic and scaring away "customer fish", the other rasp will "break up" and find another rasp to co-op with.
Finally, altruistic is incentived when resources are abundant enough and competition is rare. Bonobos are some of the most altruistic apes. It stands to reason that they're environment has more food and almost no competition for that food. Conversely, chimpanzees live in a more food-scarce environment and need to compete with gorillas. So despite bonobos and chimps living across a river from each other, they evolved very different pack structures.
ORCA: Yummy, seals! This will be my turf!
HUMPBACK WHALE: Not on my watch!
People are social creatures -- animals aren't very different in that aspect.
A Human may help another human, and though they're not the same species, the human may choose to help an animal too. Occasionally an animal will help a human, equally it can also help other animals.
Being social and mutualism help survival.
It's a big world an we're all living in it.
I remember when I learned about this in highschool. Comfy memories.
Assigning human values to actions is just something we do since it makes us feel nice/hopeful. It would be just as easy to say the Humpbacks were starving the Orcas.
Not to say the scenario mentioned in the video(of Humpbacks genuinely looking out for Orcas) couldn't be true.
Turns out, being nice isn’t just a human thing-it’s a survival strategy.
Good job!Guys amazing work what a variety of instersting talks!
Survival of the fittest was NOT pioneered by Charles Darwin. He argued against it because it was termed by Herbert Spencer.
Not sure about argued but that's interesting info! Crazy coincidence they were both working on the same idea.
Animals are nice to each other for the same reason we are.
Kinda makes sense when you think about it. Humans are very prone to helping other animals just because, and so it's reasonable to assume that an intelligent and empathetic animal might be the same way
I think whales have complex emotions, so helping a non-relative can feel the same as helping a relative. Humans can be emotionally moved by things as abstract as music, paintings, or words on a page. Natural selection only cares that the emotions don't prevent us from reproducing, but that doesn't mean they can't have effects far beyond what drives natural selection.
Well It makes sense from a certain perspective if we can assume that without this behavior, certain predators might overhunt prey populations, especially if (like orcas) they're the kind to kill things for fun.
The more time I spend with humans, the more I love animals. A few days ago, a dog was hit by a car in a highway and his bud never left his side, even after the dog unfortunately died. Honestly, most humans aren't capable of selfless acts.
Pyotr Kropotkin said it before all. Mutual Aid as a Factor of Evolution
In the case of the whales, my theory is that they're simply ocean police. The boys in "blue" breaking up whale mugging.
I love Ted-ed
@TEDEd URGENT: The constellations are schematics that can be connected via the stars and they form devices that can be used for light experiments. Please get this message out to as many as you can. Please see for yourself - connect the dots via the stars.
Thank you!
Reciprocal Altruism was a concept I was trying to explain to my coworkers while they were complaining about our country's involvement in other nation's affairs.
The phrase 'survival of the fittest' is often incorrectly attributed to Darwin.
In fact, it was coined by the philosopher Herbert Spencer in response to reading Origin of Species five years after the first edition was published.
My respect for TED ED
This is nice, always saw the animal world as a brutal predator prey system, survival of the fittest.
Your Video's are so helpful..😍😍
Hey, from the tree graph, are they siblings? Why did those meerkats in the secong line connected? Can you change it into a plus or a line that connects those partnered meerkats intead? Because those lines at the top means they are from the same source or parent, so are they siblings?
You can tell they're not siblings since there's only one line. They want to make the graph look nice so they didn't add plus signs as that would make the pictures smaller and more cramped.
@SameedChowdhury wow, it's just when i make family trees i draw a plus between two pictures to indicate marriage and a ] downward to signify siblingship and a straight line to indicate who they came from.
Because they care about each other and are considerate and respectful to others unlike humans!
🙄That's NOT the right way to say! Some humans can also be considerate and respectful. Not all humans are jerks, you know!
The fact that this video came out today when we just learned about "Fitness" in AP Biology raises questions 👀
If only humans were as altruistic towards each other as other animals. Instead, humans seem to have a unique propensity for cruelty towards each other. No other animal on Earth may be as intelligent as we humans are, but nor does any other animal have the same capacity for cruelty towards their own kin as we humans do.
I love this amazing video.
All these crazy words to describe "Karma." Karma is real and universal regardless of species
Fascinant 👏👏🌟🌟
The cries of hurt or in danger species might come from an inability to distinguish its original mutually beneficial send offs to help. But with it helping non mutual saving and helpful interactions to others who could not reciprocate such help would not be weeded out because the whale doesn’t pose a danger and thusly it’s vaguely helpful genes carry on. Ie if a danger did kill off whales that helped seals then the gene to distinguish whales from seals call for help would be established.
Many people believe the world is cruel and one should only care about oneself. "Law of the jungle".
Nature shows us this has been another misinterpretation we had of the world.
Animals (and plants) care for anothers and work together.
As humans, we should care for the people around us, for their needs and worries.
We don't live to get rich and boss on others.
Society is built with the objective of making the lives of everyone easier.
Nonetheless, just like in the animal kingdom, there's egoistic individuals who would take advantage of an altruist society, in detriment of the other individuals sake.
Just like Costa Rican vampire bats, who identify egoistic bats who don't share their meals and stop supporting them, we must build measures to ensure egoistic people cannot take advantage of altruistic policies and use them to harm the rest of society.
I wish more economy loving people watch this video.
This reminds me of Kropotkin’s book, Mutual Aid.
Awesome video!
“Generosity in NATURE.”
Animals feel kinder in a way than us humans
Great video 🎉
“Why animals help each other?"
Simple.
They aren't soulless beings
They feel what humans can feel
Animals can be more humans than mankind sometimes
I love bats so much.
they so interesting animals. 🦇🦇🦇.
Love your content ❤❤❤
Animals are better beings than most humans
lmao
Talk for yourself
Humans are animals
Except bears and some other animals eat/chew their prey alive. It's like one of the worst kinds of torture.
Even wild animals can be generous-what’s your excuse, Todd?
society would change overnight if more people read the book Magnetic Aura by Takeshi Mizuki
Nice!
Kinds of Kindness 😁
Humans are animals... We help each other...
We are nature too
give and take policy
the truth feels dangerous, and that’s why the book Magnetic Aura by Takeshi Mizuki is ignored
I looked but I can't find that book anywhere
Oh wow im actually early im too used to watching videos like 8 years old videos lol
WOW HI THERE FWEND
hi!! :p
Actually humpedback whales have generational trauma from orcas cause of the brutal things orcas do to them orcas will gather around young calfs to hunt them and attack lone humpedback just to eat their tongues so when the whale sees the orcas attcking a seal or a penguin they may not be helping the seal but trying to mess up their hunt so the orcas can go hungry and the peguins and seals benefit from this cause orcas toss seals like a ball just for fun so yeah in short humped whales will get agressive with orcas to mess up their hunts cause it's just karma.
MFW animals are being more human than most people.
N - is for the new information you give us
Humpback whale: “Cowabunga it is”
Cubs are with bears and lions and tigers and cows on land not out in the sea where their called calves or pups or even cubs if the8r polar bear ora seal pup or a whale calf which is what a baby whale is called not a cub.
Good video
another reason why I love whales - they're gentle giants
They're 'someone', not 'something'. We always feel the need to belittle other species. It's says something about us, not them.
The real question is is it empathy, spite or both
One time I was bored and killed an ant, a few days later I saw another ant carryig the dead ants body. It was crazy.
Animals developing compation while human beings losing it.
the orca ate humpback's calf, and so they seek vengeance by starving them
1:14 And then there's Chunky!
He's dead.
Is it an act of kindness to the protected, or just to spite the orcas?
Wow apparently those bats are more ethical than my friends 😂