Rats give more generously in response to the smell of hunger. How do animals that help their brethren manage to prioritize those most in need? A new study shows that rats can use odor cues alone to determine how urgently to provide food assistance to other rats in need. Source 9m.
That's really interesting and reminds me to the fact that animals in general tends to use the sense of smell to identify emotions or states. Same with dogs that are able to 'sniff out' your own hormones and able to nearly perfectly identify what is your state and deal with it. However that depends on the animal on how to deal with it but I'd say that perhaps animals have their own unique way to become their own special empaths!