“Humans have a code of ethics[道德规范],” says Marc Bekoff, an animal behavior expert at the University of Colorado. “If I don’t play a certain way, you won’t play with me. Some animals have the same code.”
Scientists recently discovered that animals who live in groups, such as elephants, foxes, and wolves, are especially likely to follow rules. If they don’t, and each does its own thing, the group might break apart. Group members would be forced to live alone. Then they’d have a harder time hunting and raising their young.
That’s probably why a traveling wolf pack[一群] stopped and waited to let its limping[跛行] leader catch up. Similar social ties may have prompted[刺激, 鼓动] a captive[被俘的] elephant to save her friend from drowning. Selfish reasons certainly motivated[激发] the male fox, who wanted to keep playing.
Sometimes, though, animals go out of their way to do what’s right, even when there’s nothing in it for them. Nobody knows why. “It might simply feel good to be kind, just as it does for humans,” says Bekoff.
Read on for four surprising stories about nice
behavior in the animal kingdom.
Foxy Friends
If your friend wasn’t nice to you, what would you do? Maybe you would just walk away. That’s exactly what a wild red fox did when she was play-boxing with another fox. The larger fox, a male, began
pushing too hard. The little female didn’t like
roughhousing[喧闹的游戏或打斗]. She trotted away[走开].
“He still wanted to play,” says Marc Bekoff. So the male fox ran after his playmate, bowed down, and rolled over. His body language meant,
“Don’t leave. I’ll play nice.” The female gave him
another chance, and the male wrestled more gently this time.
An Unexpected Gift
Sniff and the other wild chimpanzees[黑猩猩] stopped traveling and climbed into the trees. Primatologist[灵长类动物学家] Geza Teleki stopped, too. He’d been scrambling[攀爬] after them, through the forest in Gombe National Park, Tanzania, in Africa, observing their behavior.
Now, watching the chimps chow down[（美俚）狼吞虎咽],
the fruits made Teleki’s own stomach rumble[隆隆响]. Not intending to hike so far, he’d
left base camp without
provisions[防预，准备]. Maybe he could knock down some fruits for himself. Grabbing a stick, Teleki poked[戳，捅] and flailed[用力地挥动], but he couldn’t do it. Watching him, Sniff imagined himself in Teleki’s place.
“Sniff knew I was hungry,” says Teleki. “And he knew he could do something about that.” Which is why this young and timid[胆小的]
ape, who’d always avoided people, took a big risk. All on his own, Sniff picked another
armload[一抱之量] of fruits, swung down on a vine[藤，蔓], and handed them to the
astonished scientist.
One Good Turn
Toby was one generous[慷慨的] Siamese cat[暹罗猫]. For ten years, the kindly kitty shared
his food with a springer spaniel[斯伯林格斯班尼犬]
named Katie. After supper, owner Linda
always divided up the table scraps[小片，碎屑].
She’d drop some in Katie’s bowl on the floor and some in Toby’s dish on the kitchen
counter. Linda kept the cat’s dish up high to keep Katie from snitching[偷] Toby’s treats.
As it turned out, Katie didn’t need to steal; she only had to beg. Every night, the floppy[松垂的]-eared dog scarfed[狼吞虎咽地吃] down her ration[配给量] in seconds. Then she’d sit and stare at the cat. And every night, Toby would relent[发慈悲]. Using his paw, he’d flick[轻弹] several tasty tidbits[少量的精美食物] down to the waiting pup.
Apparently, Katie appreciated it. Whenever Katie
was curled up in her beanbag[豆袋坐垫] bed and the cat walked over, Katie would give up her nice, warm spot. “Toby would snuggle[偎依] down in the center of the beanbag,” says Linda, “and Katie would lie on the floor.”
In a Pinch[在紧要关头]
The African savanna[热带稀树大草原] elephant must have been surprised. He was grazing[吃草] alone in a
swamp[沼泽], in Kenya’s Masai Mara National
Reserve[保护区], when a stranger arrived. The stranger was a forest
elephant. (Forest
elephants are smaller and have more rounded ears than savanna elephants do. And they usually stay in the forest.)
But this fellow had caught his trunk in a trap. While freeing himself,
he’d torn off the tip. “Once the pain stopped, he’d be able to feed on his own,” says wildlife biologist[生物学家] Kayhan Ostovar of
Billings, Montana. Until then, he’d need help.
As if to explain, “the injured elephant walked up and stuck his trunk into the healthy elephant’s mouth,” says Ostovar, who witnessed the encounter[相遇]
between the two elephants. And that’s all it took.
Elephants often aid members of their herd. But this savanna elephant didn’t care that they weren’t related. He reached down, uprooted a small tree, and stuffed[塞满] it into his new friend’s mouth.
“人类有一套道德准则，”（美国）科罗拉多大学的动物行为专家马克・贝可夫说。“如果我不按某种方式办事，你就不会跟我玩了。有些动物也有同样的
准则。”
最近，科学家发现群居动物，如大象、狐狸和狼，特别有可能遵守规则。如果它们不这么做，而是各行其是，那么这个族群就可能崩溃。族群成员可能就要被迫独自生活。这样，它们狩猎和养育后代就会更为艰难。
那也许就是整个狼群停下步伐，等待瘸了腿的首领跟上队伍的原因。类似的社会联系也可能会促使一头被捕的大象去营救其溺水的朋友。一只想继续玩耍的雄性狐狸显然会受自身的理由影响而行事。
然而，有时动物也会独辟蹊径，不按规矩办事―即便这么做对它们毫无益处。没有人知道为什么。“也许仅仅是因为友善的感觉很好，就像人类一样，”贝可夫说。
以下是动物王国里四个令人惊奇的友善行为的故事。
狐狸朋友
如果你的朋友对你不好，你会怎么做？也许你会甩手走开。那也是一只野生雌性赤狐的做法。它在和另一只狐狸玩“拳击”时，那只体形大些的雄性狐狸推得有点过猛了。小雌狐狸不喜欢打打闹闹，径自走了。
“可是它还想玩，”马克・贝可夫说。所以雄狐狸追着它的玩伴，躬下身子，在地上打了个滚儿。它的肢体语言是说：“别走，我会好好玩的。”雌狐狸给了它另一次机会，于是这回雄狐狸摔起跤来动作就温柔多了。
意外惊喜
“嗅嗅”和其它野生黑猩猩停止前进，爬进树丛中。灵长类动物学家格扎・塔勒奇也停了下来。为了观察它们的行为，他一直跟着这群黑猩猩摸爬滚打，穿行在非洲坦桑尼亚贡贝国家公园的密林里。
现在，看着猩猩们在狼吞虎咽地吃水果，塔勒奇的肚子也开始打起鼓来。因为原本没有打算徒步走这么远，他离开营地时没有准备粮水。也许他可以试试自己摇一些水果下来。于是，塔勒奇抓起一根木棍，伸出去不停挥动，但始终没有成功。嗅嗅看着他这幅模样，设身处地为他着想
起来。
“嗅嗅知道我饿了，”塔勒奇说。“它知道自己能帮助我。”这便解释了为何这只年轻腼腆、向来回避人群的黑猩猩竟然愿意冒一个大险。嗅嗅又去摘了一大捧水果，独自顺着一根藤荡下来，把水果交给这位受宠若惊的科学家。
礼尚往来
托比是一只慷慨的暹罗猫。十年来，这只和善的小猫一直与一只叫凯蒂的斯伯林格斯班尼犬分享自己的食物。晚饭后，主人琳达总是把饭桌上的剩菜分成两份，一些放到凯蒂在地上的碗里，另一些放到托比在厨房柜台上的碟子里。琳达把猫咪的餐碟放在高处，这样凯蒂就偷不到托比的美餐了。
事实却证明，凯蒂根本不需要去偷；它只需要求。每天晚上，这只两耳低垂的小狗只消几秒钟就把她的份儿吞下去了，然后它就坐在那儿看着那只猫。而每天晚上，托比都会大发慈悲，用爪子把一些美味的碎屑拨给这只望眼欲穿的小狗。
凯蒂显然心存感激。每当凯蒂蜷在它的豆袋垫床里，看见小猫走过来的时候，凯蒂都会自动让出舒适温暖的小窝。“然后托比就会舒适地蜷伏在豆袋坐垫的中央，”琳达说，“凯蒂则躺在地板上。”
拔鼻相助
那头非洲稀树草原象肯定大吃一惊。它正在肯尼亚马赛马拉国家自然保护区的沼泽里独自啃树叶，突然闯入了一位陌生人。这位不速之客是一头森林象。（森林象的体型比草原象小，双耳较圆，通常在森林活动。）
但是这位伙计的鼻子之前被卡在一个陷阱里。在挣脱的时候，它把鼻尖弄断了。“疼痛停止之后，它就能够重新自行进食，”来自（美国）蒙大拿州比灵斯的野生动物生物学家凯恩・奥斯托瓦说。但是在此之前，它需要帮助。
似乎是为了解释这种情况，“这只受伤的大象走上前去，把鼻子伸进那头健康大象的嘴巴里，”目睹这两头大象相遇的奥斯托瓦说。就是如此简单。大象通常只会帮助自己族群的成员。然而这头草原象并不在意它们没有血缘关系这件事。它伸出鼻子，拔起一棵小树，把它塞进新朋友的嘴里。