A study had found cottontop tamarin monkeys display the
behavioural trait of altruism when they share food for no
immediate personal gain. Photo by Wikimedia.
At the crêpe stall at the Otago Farmers Market, a man was
trying to get his sons to share their crêpes with him.
I didn't know him personally but because Dunedin is not a big
city, I knew the boys were his sons and he was an off-duty
priest.
The sons were young, maybe 8 and 6.
"Please can I have a bite of your crêpe?" the man said to the
6ish boy, who shook his head and scrammed.
The father looked sad. He turned to the 8ish boy and said:
"Please will you give me just one bite of your crêpe?"
Funny what slight changes to wording can convey. Just one
bite is one bite reduced in magnitude.
The older boy shook his head also, and had a chomp of his
crêpe just to emphasise the no. In the process he got smears
of whatever dark sticky filling he'd chosen on his cheeks.
Adorable.
The father had a third sprog - possibly an accident -
securely fastened to his chest.
Queuing alongside, I thought about cottontop tamarins. I had
just been reading a news story about them. A study had found
these little monkeys displayed the behavioural trait of
altruism when they shared food for no immediate personal
gain; helping each other to get little treats and so on.
The primatologists were excited about this partly because,
they said, few animal species were as selfless and giving as
humans. Humans were remarkably generous.
"Oh, please can I have just one bite?" said the man at the
market, really looking very pitiful. I pitied him.
"Nup," said his blue-eyed boy and had another chomp.
I wondered how cottontop tamarins went about passing on the
trait of altruism to their young; whether they begged them
for food or just told them to hand it over, filthy little
ape.
"Please?" the man said again, before apparently despairing of
a bite of crêpe.
The 8ish boy shook his head, with full pouches either side of
the mouth.
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