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Accumulated evidence across animals suggests that helping behavior is triggered by empathy. We examined whether prairie voles, one of the more highly social animals, help conspecifics who are soaked in water by opening a door to a safe area. Door-opening latency decreased as task sessions progressed, suggesting that prairie voles learn helping behavior. In addition, when the conspecific was not soaked in water, the latency of the door-opening did not decrease, suggesting that the distress of the conspecific is necessary for the learning of the door-opening. Thus, the door-opening behavior in prairie voles can be considered a helping behavior that is motivated by empathy for the distress of conspecifics. We also examined the helping behavior in prairie voles in which oxytocin receptors were genetically knocked out. Oxytocin receptor knockout voles demonstrated impaired learning of the door-opening. This suggests that oxytocin is important for the emergence of helping behavior.

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