Animal Empathy: Examples of Animals That Cared for Other Animals (Including for Humans)

One of the biggest signs that animals carry some of the same traits as humans is the fact that they can express empathy in certain situations. The trait is admittedly complex, but researchers have observed this in many different animal species. You see it more prevalent in social animal species that evolved as a way to maintain social cohesion. 

I thought this would be an interesting topic to show how we share many things with animals, and it also highlights in an indirect way why ending animal cruelty through veganism is so important. They sometimes experience the same things that we do.

Cases of Feral Children

Tarzan is a fictional story, but the Jungle Book was inspired by the case of Dina Sanichar. He was a feral boy discovered as being raised by wolves in a cave in 1867. 

His earliest years were spent believing he was one of the wolves. Many of these cases happen because of abusive parents or because they were orphans that didn’t receive the proper love and care. 

An animal, taking compassion on the vulnerable child, came in and raised them. It raises fascinating questions about the boundaries between humans and animals.

In most cases, feral children will never develop language skills or only limited language skills because their brain at the most critical time, never had much for human contact. Instead, they will communicate with animal sounds. Many of them never learn to walk on two legs.

Some known examples of feral children besides Dina Sanichar include:

This shows you a couple of examples where animals were compassionate toward humans in their situations. You can look up the cases to see these were real examples of animal empathy. Now, let’s take a look at examples of animals that showed compassion toward other animals.

Mama Cat Adopts 4 Baby Squirrels

One of the interesting things about this case is that cats will sometimes even eat squirrels, so it came as a surprise when Pusha, a cat in Bakhchisaray, Crimea, adopted four orphaned baby squirrels that were brought to her by concerned locals who saw that the orphaned squirrels needed a mother.  

In the video below, you’ll even see her nursing the baby squirrels right alongside her own litter of four kittens:

One can debate the reasons for why animals would adopt other animals like this—whether it’s empathy or something else—but it raises some interesting questions without immediate answers. 

Dog Saves Baby Deer from Drowning

Dogs are capable of incredible animal empathy, and you’ve probably even seen cases where a dog saved a human from an attacking bear, or they saved a human from getting bit by a rattlesnake that the human couldn’t see. 

In another case, I saw a pet dog save a toddler from an attacking neighbor’s pitbull. 

That highlights examples of dogs with animal empathy toward humans, but they have also been shown to have empathy toward other animals. 

In the video below, it shows a dog that saves a baby deer from drowning:

The labrador jumped into a fast-moving river to drag the baby deer out of the water before it drowned. 

Gorilla Saves 3-Year-Old Boy

In this case, a boy fell into a zoo enclosure and a female gorilla came in and cradled the boy who had fallen. What’s interesting about this case is the lucidity of the gorilla. It knew where to take the child to help him. The gorilla took the boy to a service door where the zoo personnel were able to reach him safely. 

Here’s a video of the news incident, which happened in 1996:

Cheetah Gets an Emotional Support Tortoise

Humans aren’t the only ones that have emotional support dogs. Cheetahs are known for forming friendships with dogs, and zoos even often pair cheetahs up with dogs because it helps the cheetah to feel calm and secure.  

Most often this happens with rescue dogs or pure labradors or German shepherds because they can tolerate the kitty play more easily.

In this case, however, it was one that you never would’ve guessed—instead of a dog, the cheetah received an emotional tortoise. They soon became best friends as the video below highlights:

This wholesome video goes to show that even animals can form friendships with other animals. Even when you take the fastest land animals versus one of the slowest, they can still form friendships. 

Final Thoughts

Animal empathy is an interesting phenomenon, and it shows how even animals have feelings and compassion. 

In the cases with feral children, the animals often had more empathy for the vulnerable child than the humans in their immediate vicinity. 

This shows you one of the reasons why going vegan can make a lot of sense since continuing to eat animals will cause suffering. Eating plants makes for a better alternative.