![Lending a Helping Paw: When Animals Cooperate [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/22D58561-6E06-46BD-BB8ADF81569E2A17.jpg?w=590&h=393)
Competition has been a vital force in the evolution of life on Earth, but it has not acted alone. Cooperation, too, has played an essential part. So argues mathematical biologist Martin Nowak of Harvard University in the cover story of the July 2012 issue of Scientific American. The slide show below pictures some of the many creatures known to assist those in need.
Lending a Helping Paw: When Animals Cooperate [Slide Show]
Humans are not alone in aiding others
Lending a Helping Paw: When Animals Cooperate [Slide Show]
- HUNGER GAMES: When a vampire bat misses a meal, one of its roost mates may regurgitate some of its meal to share with the hungry bat. Wikimedia Commons/Sandstein
- TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS: Small fish known as wrasses nibble dead skin and parasites from large, predatory groupers. Wikimedia Commons/, via Wikimedia Commons
- GIVING DIRECTIONS: Foraging honey bees show fellow foragers they way to good food sources. Wikimedia Commons/Louise Docker
- WINGMAN: Male olive baboons will partner up to drive away a female’s existing consort, giving one of the pair the chance to mate with her. Wikimedia Commons/USFWS/Gary M. Stolz
- STANDING GUARD: Some meerkats act as sentinels, warning group members with an alarm call when they spy a predator. Wikimedia Commons/Ashleigh Thompson
- IT TAKES A VILLAGE: Among Florida scrub jays, helpers assist with the rearing of chicks that are not their own. Wikimedia Commons/vvAndromedavv
- HUNTING PARTY: Male chimpanzees sometimes team up to hunt monkeys for food. Wikimedia Commons/Caelio