Read the news from Turkey? About a sheep which freefell to death and had its hundreds and hundreds of pals doing the same, over a quarter of those sheep died from falling...... XD Dunno what triggers that.... any guess?
Do Any Animal Commit Suicide?
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Cattle have also been known to Stampeed and cause fatalities near cliff edges, however thats pretty much fear causing them to do strange things.
Gnats/Mosquito's are suicidal, well they are if they try feeding off of me (splat!)
Seriously, I would guess that nature is about survival since there are predators for most animal kind. Namely they don't have much chance to think about whether there life is going in the right direction or they end up someones lunch.
I suppose you could suggest the Humble Bee can be suicidal if it decides to sting someone because it's stinger is jagged and usually causes the abdomen to be torn from the bee, condemning it to death.
You then have Black Widow's and the Preying Mantis. I mention these because if a respective partner (male to the female) doesn't approach the female correctly, they can end up being a meal for her. (remember that the next time your suppose to take a lady on a date.) You could suggest that it's almost suicidal to put yourself in a predicament where you could get eaten.
Gnats/Mosquito's are suicidal, well they are if they try feeding off of me (splat!)
Seriously, I would guess that nature is about survival since there are predators for most animal kind. Namely they don't have much chance to think about whether there life is going in the right direction or they end up someones lunch.
I suppose you could suggest the Humble Bee can be suicidal if it decides to sting someone because it's stinger is jagged and usually causes the abdomen to be torn from the bee, condemning it to death.
You then have Black Widow's and the Preying Mantis. I mention these because if a respective partner (male to the female) doesn't approach the female correctly, they can end up being a meal for her. (remember that the next time your suppose to take a lady on a date.) You could suggest that it's almost suicidal to put yourself in a predicament where you could get eaten.
cat,
scorpions will sting themselves when they are unable to escape from the threat so that the predator will be poisoned if eats the carcass, and will either die or not attack another scorpion.
it was a common passtime for troops stationed in egypt during ww1 to surround scorpions in a ring of fire and watch them sting themselves when they couldnt escape
scorpions will sting themselves when they are unable to escape from the threat so that the predator will be poisoned if eats the carcass, and will either die or not attack another scorpion.
it was a common passtime for troops stationed in egypt during ww1 to surround scorpions in a ring of fire and watch them sting themselves when they couldnt escape
just wanted to say birds have excellent sight
Many of the said cases of animal suicide can be elplaned by looking at the way severals navigate and communicate. Birds are a excellent example, we know that electromagnetic waves effect the way they naviage in migration pattens.
Therefore surely such mass bird suicides can be explaning with fluxes in the natural electromagnetic field of the earth resulting in mistaken collisions.
Similar hypotheses can also explain such occurences in lemmings etc, although i have read of cases involving dogs apparently jumping from bridges in a town in Germany. For this I find no scientific explanation.
Therefore surely such mass bird suicides can be explaning with fluxes in the natural electromagnetic field of the earth resulting in mistaken collisions.
Similar hypotheses can also explain such occurences in lemmings etc, although i have read of cases involving dogs apparently jumping from bridges in a town in Germany. For this I find no scientific explanation.
As others have said, lemmings don't commit suicide.
However, some female spiders eat their mates after sex and some have observed that the male spiders actually cooperate in their demise.
There are many observations of what amounts to biological suicide. The octopus stops eating after reproducing and commits suicide by starvation.
Some think aging is essentially biological suicide. See http://www.azinet.com/aging/
However, some female spiders eat their mates after sex and some have observed that the male spiders actually cooperate in their demise.
There are many observations of what amounts to biological suicide. The octopus stops eating after reproducing and commits suicide by starvation.
Some think aging is essentially biological suicide. See http://www.azinet.com/aging/
curioucity said:
Herd mentality. Mob rules. One of the sheep's parents probably asked him that morning, "well if Baaab jumps off of a cliff, would you follow him?"
That and ovicaprids are stupid.
I don't think animals, other than humans, have a conscious "will to live" per say - it is mostly instinctive (part of their geneticically evolved survival strategy). The key is their development and extent of their "consciousness." Do they even know what death is? And, if so, what would make them to choose that route if they knew it was an even an option, as humans sometimes do? I think a lot of mammals do know what death is, but they don't really understand it, and don't understand it in the same way that humans do, and don't have the intellectual complexity of thought to contemplate if they would want to do the same.
For example, many mammals linger around their dead mate after it is gone, but eventually seem to understand that she or he is no more, and then depart. Dogs seem to be an exception, and the only exception that I can think of. There have been countless documented cases where a dog (lifespan of 10-20 years) has bonded to its master so close that after its master dies, the dog sometimes will to. As to why the dog dies, this is open to speculation. It does not do anything to "commit suicide," but maybe just dies of something similar to like what we humans might call "a broken heart." But yet a human that dies from a broken heart is not committing suicide.
A lot of the replies on this thread have been referring to accidental animal deaths, some of which have been suggested as being attributed to anthropomorphic characteristics. Remember that anthropomorphism is the interpretation or the attributing of human characteristics to non-human things. It is difficult to do - since we do not have the mind of a cat, a dog, or a lemming - but to answer this question objectively, we can't limit our thoughts or be stuck in the box of anthropomorphic explanations.
For example, many mammals linger around their dead mate after it is gone, but eventually seem to understand that she or he is no more, and then depart. Dogs seem to be an exception, and the only exception that I can think of. There have been countless documented cases where a dog (lifespan of 10-20 years) has bonded to its master so close that after its master dies, the dog sometimes will to. As to why the dog dies, this is open to speculation. It does not do anything to "commit suicide," but maybe just dies of something similar to like what we humans might call "a broken heart." But yet a human that dies from a broken heart is not committing suicide.
A lot of the replies on this thread have been referring to accidental animal deaths, some of which have been suggested as being attributed to anthropomorphic characteristics. Remember that anthropomorphism is the interpretation or the attributing of human characteristics to non-human things. It is difficult to do - since we do not have the mind of a cat, a dog, or a lemming - but to answer this question objectively, we can't limit our thoughts or be stuck in the box of anthropomorphic explanations.
so, what are ya'll saying - You don't know!! ??
are all whale beachings disorientation due to navy sonar?
the thing is suicide goes against the instinct of survival. I just can't believe we are stumped.
deer masturbate themselves if that's not redundant. animals get drunk, I've seen chimps falling down drunk from natural fermentation - and I swear they knew what they were up to.
but suicide? what about after mating....then life could become pointless...like a male praying mantis knowing once he screws that babe she's gonna eat him....maybe he was so hard up he figured, hey, it's worth it. Could that be suicide?
are all whale beachings disorientation due to navy sonar?
the thing is suicide goes against the instinct of survival. I just can't believe we are stumped.
deer masturbate themselves if that's not redundant. animals get drunk, I've seen chimps falling down drunk from natural fermentation - and I swear they knew what they were up to.
but suicide? what about after mating....then life could become pointless...like a male praying mantis knowing once he screws that babe she's gonna eat him....maybe he was so hard up he figured, hey, it's worth it. Could that be suicide?
I doubt the male praying mantis knows in advance he's going to be the females dinner, or that even the female knows in advance that she's going to eat him. That's being anthropomorphic. I think she just does it afterwards by spontaneous instinct.
Yeah, for lower forms of life suicide would go against that instinct for survival. No doubt there, right? So its not all just guessing. You can make likely predictions based on the more we learn from their behavior and physiology, like whale and dolphin beaching due to some sort of disorientation. There's really a lot of research going on about that. I think we'll know the answer to that one pretty soon - but its not suicide.
Yeah, for lower forms of life suicide would go against that instinct for survival. No doubt there, right? So its not all just guessing. You can make likely predictions based on the more we learn from their behavior and physiology, like whale and dolphin beaching due to some sort of disorientation. There's really a lot of research going on about that. I think we'll know the answer to that one pretty soon - but its not suicide.