Creatures including dolphins, monkeys, fruit bats and even ants are all capable of selflessly coming to the rescue of others, researchers found.

研究者发现，包括海豚、猴子、果蝠、甚至蚂蚁在内的各种生物都会无私地拯救其他同伴。


Dr Elise Nowbahari, from the University of Paris, said there is mounting evidence that willingness to go to the aid of others at personal risk is common in a range of species and far from a solely human trait.

巴黎大学的Elise Nowbahari博士称有很多证据表明，除人类以外的数个物种的生物会冒着生命危险拯救帮助同伴。


Dolphins endanger themselves to rescue trapped dolphins, lifting an injured dolphin to the water's surface to help it breathe, she said.

海豚会冒险救援被困海豚，将受伤的海豚举过海平面、以帮助其呼吸。


Monkeys will drive away an attacker from a vulnerable female or infants and female fruit bats help other fruit bats in labour to ease the birth.

猴子会把捕食者从容易受伤的母猴和幼猴身边赶跑；而果蝠会帮助生产中的同类减缓痛苦。


She also said that ants frequently help other ants from the same colony if they are caught in traps or by a predator – though their heroism does not extend to helping ants from other colonies whose actual cries for help are ignored.

博士同时称，蚂蚁经常会帮助同一蚁穴的同伴逃离险境和捕食者之口——但它们不会帮助其他蚁穴的蚂蚁，尽管这些蚂蚁也受困、求救。


One of the biggest internet hits is a film of buffalo fighting off lions that had attacked one of their young in the Kruger National Park in South Africa.

曾有一部影片在网络上引起轩然大波，表现的是南非库鲁格国家公园里的水牛为救幼仔击退狮子的攻击。

"We may be underestimating the extent of rescue behaviour in the wild," said Dr Nowbahari, whose work is published in the latest issue of Communicative and Integrative Biology.

而如今Nowbahari博士认为，人们可能低估了野生动物在互相救援时所能达到的极限。她的这篇论文最近在《生物交流与综合》杂志上发表。