This work is such a tremendous FRESH AIR for us... after reading-seeing
   & being zombified by the "social Darwinists" with their endless
   examples of pitiless and brutal struggle in the Nature (-> thus it
   "must be" between us too!).
   Rereading this wonderful work (now on English)...i meet again
   Kropotkin's (and other researchers) great examples of mutual aid in the
   animal kingdom.

   One of these examples is truly amazing:

     Facts illustrating mutual aid amidst the termites, the ants, and the
     bees are so well known to the general reader, especially through the
     works of Romanes, L. Büchner, and Sir John Lubbock, that I may limit
     my remarks to a very few hints.(7*) If we take an ants' nest, we not
     only see that every description of work- rearing of progeny,
     foraging, building, rearing of aphides, and so on -- is performed
     according to the principles of voluntary mutual aid; we must also
     recognize, with Forel, that the chief, the fundamental feature of
     the life of many species of ants is the fact and the obligation for
     every ant of sharing its food, already swallowed and partly
     digested, with every member of the community which may apply for it.
     Two ants belonging to two different species or to two hostile nests,
     when they occasionally meet together, will avoid each other. But two
     ants belonging to the same nest or to the same colony of nests will
     approach each other, exchange a few movements with the antennae, and
     "if one of them is hungry or thirsty, and especially if the other
     has its crop full... it immediately asks for food." The individual
     thus requested never refuses; it sets apart its mandibles, takes a
     proper position, and regurgitates a drop of transparent fluid which
     is licked up by the hungry ant. Regurgitating food for other ants is
     so prominent a feature in the life of ants (at liberty), and it so
     constantly recurs both for feeding hungry comrades and for feeding
     larvae, that Forel considers the digestive tube of the ants as
     consisting of two different parts, one of which, the posterior, is
     for the special use of the individual, and the other, the anterior
     part, is chiefly for the use of the community. If an ant which has
     its crop full has been selfish enough to refuse feeding a comrade,
     it will be treated as an enemy, or even worse. If the refusal has
     been made while its kinsfolk were fighting with some other species,
     they will fall back upon the greedy individual with greater
     vehemence than even upon the enemies themselves. And if an ant has
     not refused to feed another ant belonging to an enemy species, it
     will be treated by the kinsfolk of the latter as a friend.
     All this is confirmed by most accurate observation and decisive
     experiments.(8*)