Altruism

Altruism is a behavior in which an individual, the donor performs an action that helps another individual, the recipient without the donor gaining any advantage. We believe that natural selection should eliminate these characteristics, but there are still numerous examples. In animals today, we can see acts of altruism being performed in honey bees, ants and “the watchman” bird. We also see a special kind of altruistic behavior in vampire bats. (1)

A honey bee society is made up of a queen bee and 30,000 – 40,000 workers. Each worker who is a diploid female begins their life as a fertilized egg which is deposited by the queen in a separate wax cell. (The males are haploid and develop from unfertilized eggs.) After the fertilized egg hatches, a white, grublike larva is produced. This larva is fed almost continuously by the nurse workers. After the larva has grown until it fills the cell, the nurses cover the cell with a wax lid. Then, within 12 days the adult bee emerges. (3)

After the adult bee begins work, she is a nurse bringing honey and pollen from storage cells to the queen. After becoming a nurse, she begins to produce wax which is secreted from the abdomen and passed forward to expand the comb.

 
 

“Kin selection refers to the evolution of traits because they are passed on by the relatives (the kin) of individuals who express the traits.” Altruism is the main trait that evolves from kin selection. Let’s pretend that altruism is a genetic trait that some individuals have it in their phenotype, where others have it only in their genotype. And, lets assume an altruistic individual helps another individual to reproduce. If the recipient is a kin to the altruist, that means it is a genetic relative, likely to carry the same alleles, and therefore likely to carry the allele for altruism. So the allele for altruism can be reproduced by the recipient if that individual is related to the altruist. It may be reproduced so much that it increases in the population, even though the altruist does not reproduce it very much. (1)

There are plenty more examples of animal altruism. The “watchman” bird lets out a squawk every time it sees a hawk approaching, so all the neighboring flocks know when to fly off, thus confusing the predator. The loud squawk makes it a target of attack, while those who heed the alarm get away. As for dogs and wolves, they bring back food for others who have not taken part in the hunt and who didn’t risk their lives in finding it. (2)

Altruism can evolve not because it increases the survival and reproduction of the individual who expresses the trait of altruism but because it is reproduced by kin of that individual who carry recessive altruistic alleles, therefore not being expressed. Like other traits, altruism will evolve if it is passed from. However, we can’t describe how altruism will evolve based on the survival and reproduction of the individuals who express altruism, so we consider something called “inclusive fitness.” This refers to the degree to which a trait is passed down to other generations. The trait can be passed from generation to generation directly by, reproduction of individuals who express the trait. Also the altruistic trait can be passed indirectly, when individuals who express the trait help individuals who carry the alleles for the trait. The recipients end up reproducing more becaus



Some topics in this essay:
Altruism Altruism, Charles Darwin, individuals express, gene pool, altruism evolve, human altruism, trait passed, natural selection, protect colony, gene pool generations, natural selection individuals, humans socially evolved, altruistic behavior, vampire bats, individuals express trait, honey bees, reproduction individuals express,
 
   
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