> adaptive survival tactic While evolving to trick others into looking after your young is on a relatively straightforward evolutionary trick, evolving to look

> adaptive survival tactic While evolving to trick others into looking after your young is on a relatively straightforward evolutionary trick, evolving to look after others is not a straightforward story. Child care is incredibly resource intensive and hard work. Evolving an instinct to care for creatures other than your own young is almost entirely negative from an evolutionary point of view, unless there's a big benefit that isn't obvious. The suggestion higher up the thread is that perhaps that trait lead to humans keeping animals that provided a significant evolutionary advantage. It's an interesting idea, but it doesn't seem terribly likely since other mammals have the same trait but don't keep pets.