[ExI] Ants for spike!

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of MB
...
> Subject: [ExI] Ants for spike!
> 
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/antssavematestrappedinsand
> 
> Helpful acts, such as grooming or foster parenting, are 
> common throughout the animal kingdom, but accounts of animals 
> rescuing one another from danger are exceedingly rare, having 
> been reported in the scientific literature only for dolphins, 
> capuchin monkeys, and ants...


Cool thanks MB!

I am pondering a specific example of animal behavior I had the previlege of
witnessing first hand.  I was in the yard during my misspent youth, and my
doberman started barking his head off.  He had found a rattlesnake.  I
started over towards the racket when the dog grabbed the snake and slew it
by shaking violently.  I do not think this would count as putting himself in
harms way specifically to protect me, as I was a good 50 meters away.  He
might have slain the snake even if I had not been around.  There might be a
bunch of pack-animal instincts that get all messed up when a dog is fed by
and constantly in the presence of humans, but is never in the presence of
other dogs.  

The ant example is way cool.  Chimpanzees have been observed to participate
in what would be called street gang rumbles in humans.  Most of us have
heard of dogs who will put themselves in harms way to rescue another dog or
a human from danger.  I don't know how to interpret it.