It's the season of selflessness, so meet some unlikely altruists – the ants that work tirelessly to rescue their sisters
YOU don't have to be a cynic to realise that the bonhomie and gift-giving at this time of year is not entirely motivated by a desire to bring pleasure to others. Go on, admit it, sometimes it has more to do with assuaging guilt, improving our standing in the eyes of the recipient, or simply hoping for something better in return. And there's nothing wrong with that. Even if we are not entirely altruistic, at least humans have regular orgies of niceness. By contrast, just a handful of examples of genuine altruism have ever been recorded in other animals.
But before we become too complacent, let's bring in Elise Nowbahari. She believes that if evidence of genuine altruism is rare in the ...
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