Image courtesy of Flip Nicklin/Minden Pictures/Alamy
Joel Kontinen
Animals know
when a member of their tribe has sickness and they try to help it. And bottlenose
etches are nor an expecting, For instance ants know this. We would not expect animals to care for their
wounded comrades in a Darwinian world, but in a created world it is no big
deal, as God has given animals the intelligence they need for coping in a
post-Fall environment.
A paper published in the journal Proceedings of
the Royal Society B features African Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) that are
known for waging wars against other ant colonies. Now, researchers found that
they care for the injured, carry them home and even clean their wounds, perhaps
with an antibiotic substance to “fend off infections,” as an article in The
Guardian puts it.
Northern
bottlenose whales have stronger social bonds when they are
starving or sick. This discovery was a surprise, because often in mammals,
social connections are associated with better health. But during tough times,
these whales may rally round and care for others in need.
That idea
fits with early whalers’ descriptions of the animals’ behaviour. In a report from 1882, David Gray, commander of the
whaling steamer Eclipse, said he had observed thousands of northern bottlenose
whales, and noted they had a peculiar response to injured individuals. “The
herd never leaves a wounded companion so long as it is alive,” he said. “They
come from every point of the compass towards the struck one in the most
mysterious manner.”
Jo Marchant 2026 Bottlenose whales may look after each other when they’re sick | New Scientist 19 October
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