RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING TEXT:

"Moral Behavior in Animals", the TED-talk given by Frans de Waal's concerning altruistic or moral behaviors in animals, is definitely worth listening to regardless of one's opinion on the matter. Frans de Waal's lecture is largely focused on his various studies surrounding chimpanzee behavior and the often-surprising results he observed, especially at the beginning of his career when the popular belief concerning animal morality was mostly centered around competition, aggression, and the need for survival. He attests that he has continuously seen evidence contrary to those beliefs, directly observing test subjects showing signs of empathy, consolation, pro-social tendencies, reciprocity, and a sense of fairness. Again, regardless of one's opinion concerning the scope of animal morality, this lecture is a great perspective of-sorts to take into account, if only because it's important to listen to all perspectives surrounding a topic to ensure you have a good understanding of it. That being said, I personally believe Frans de Waal's testimony to an extent, as I feel like I have perceived certain altruistic behaviors in my childhood dogs, such as treat sharing and reciprocity.

The article "Chimpanzees return favors at a personal cost" conducted a study to gauge whether chimpanzees are capable of demonstrating reciprocal actions with others. They found that chimpanzees were willing to incur personal costs to provide assistance, or reciprocate favors, to conspecific individuals who had previously assisted them in return. Similarly, I have directly observed my dogs, who share no relation besides species, take turns taking certain risks to obtain rewards, which they would then share with the other. Specifically, they would repeatedly take turns stealing food from the table or trash, take it into a different room where the other dog would be, and eat it together, despite previous experiences resulting in the perpetrator being caught and reprimanded. To me, it always seemed like a "tit-for-tat" exchange.

Thus, even if my own experience is incorrectly attributed to animal morality, I find it very plausible that animals could have some sense of altruistic or moral behavior in general.