Are animals selfish?

Some people think that animals are selfish beings. In fact, if you're kind to them, they'll be grateful to you and they'll try to repay the favor. Not always, but more often than humans will.

I recently found out a few examples of animals (fellow felines) adopting babies that could be their prey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpfvkeo0KBc
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-470764/Moggy-purrfect-mother-feathery-family.html

Then I decided to adopt two ducklings. Every day, they're becoming more loving and forgiving, and they're starting to look at me as if to say "thank you" after e.g. a nice walk. They've already learned to not escape their box when they're indoors and they've even almost stopped waking me up in the wee hours of the morning when they have to be fed - they just wait patiently until someone wakes up. And the first thing I do every morning is to say hello to two cute little creatures, who start making happy sounds as soon as they notice I'm awake.

When I first brought them home, they were making too much noise for public transport and I had to keep their box shut. One week later, during a much longer bus trip, their box was open all along and they were being quiet and well-behaved, although they were obviously not at ease.

Two days after I bought them, I had very high fever and my room was noisy all night long, because of my family taking care of me. They were in my room, obviously unable to sleep, but being very quiet. A human would have said "shut up, I'm trying to sleep!". And they were just baby animals.

And then, full of duckish affection, I start noticing that humans often feel attacked and start retaliating only by thinking that someone else is superior. If this "superior" person is peacefully questioning what they want to believe as "right", even if they know it's wrong deep inside, they reply with insults. If this "superior" person has been friendly to them and has done them good, they can become the worst enemies.

This might explain why I'm a feline by choice...

Artemis

This is the story of a young female Mallard duck. It took place several years ago.

This duck was migrating far away with her friends, when, for some reason, she hurt her wing and realized that, unfortunately, she couldn't make it. She looked around and found a garden with several chickens, as well as three non-migratory white Pekin ducks. They seemed happy, well-fed and friendly, so she decided that she would stay there. She landed on the wrong side of the fence, but a young girl saw her, chased her and put her inside the fence, together with her other ducks. She proceeded to name the new duck Artemis.

Artemis stayed there and was getting along very well with her three friends, especially with the youngest one of them. She was friendly to her human hosts, eating twice a day together with the other ducks and chickens, and obediently walking into the coop at dusk. However happy she seemed, though, she could not forget her previous friends and often used to face north and cry - these long sequences of quacks, with their decreasing pitch and volume, definitely sounded like mourning.

One day, while taking a walk on the snow, some wild animal decided to attack. Her wing wasn't completely healed yet, but she still decided to ignore the pain and fly to safety. Her human hosts have lost traces of her since that incident. Unfortunately, her three friends were from a race that could not fly...

It was so nice being with you for a few months, Artemis. Sorry I couldn't protect you...