[Taxacom] empathy in animals

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi All,
      Happy holidays.  In this brief time of celebration and people trying to put aside bad emotions for a while, I was thinking about empathy in other animal species.  It is certainly now recognized that many social mammals can exhibit empathy (elephants, many primates, social carnivores, etc.), but is empathy as common in birds (parrots are a familiar example).  And if so, did some dinosaurs exhibit some empathy (beyond relationships with their offspring and other family group members)?  I can't think of any other reptiles that might exhibit empathy (I wouldn't think that the reptile brain probably has much capacity for empathy).
       I was also trying to think of any invertebrates that might have some capacity for empathy.   The only possible example I could think of was the octopus (or other cephalopods).  Very intelligent, but are they social enough to exhibit much empathy?   I guess it depends on how broadly one defines empathy.
                              -------------Ken Kinman