One possible answer is that helping others often means helping close relatives. Close relatives share many of the same genes that they inherited from their common ancestor. As a result, helping a close relative may actually increase the chances that copies of one’s own genes will be passed to the next generation. In this way, a behavior that puts oneself at risk could actually increase through natural selection. This form of natural selection is called kin selection .
Prairie dogs have an elaborate alarm system where some members of the group will bark out warnings when they see predators. The warnings alert other members of the group to take cover.
Will the watchers passing on or not passing on their genes?