Do animals commit suicide? If so plese give some examples.?

Answer 1

If you mean, "Other than humans, do otherwise healthy and reproductively-capable individuals of any other species perform actions foreseeably guaranteed to result in their immediate death?", the answer is NO. Violate any one of the conditions in the preceding statement, and the answer is YES. Sick or injured animals of many different types will act in such ways as to guarantee a speedier end to their suffering, and this appears to include whale beachings. Whale beachings are also one reason for the qualifier "foreseeable," in that it appears healthy whales may follow a sick leader when the latter beaches--as social animals, they instinctively trust their leader, which under most circumstances would not lead them to their doom, so their unexpected (to them) beaching cannot be considered genuinely suicidal. For that matter, a rabbit that walks out into an open field when there's a hungry owl nearby may be performing an action virtually guaranteed to result in death--but not foreseeably so. Nor would an animal that dies defending its young necessarily be considered suicidal, even if the enemy is something pretty much impossible to defeat; after all, the enemy might retreat if it doesn't seem worth the trouble, so sometimes defense works.

The reason for the clause "reproductively-capable" is that there are many social insects with sterile, suicidal soldiers or workers--for example, termite soldiers that explode their bodies, which are filled with sticky guts, immobilizing their enemies in goo. As a final note, the stuff about lemmings jumping off cliffs, of course, is a myth.

Answer 2

If you mean, "Other than humans, do otherwise healthy and reproductively-capable individuals of any other species perform actions foreseeably guaranteed to result in their immediate death?", the answer is NO. Violate any one of the conditions in the preceding statement, and the answer is YES. Sick or injured animals of many different types will act in such ways as to guarantee a speedier end to their suffering, and this appears to include whale beachings. Whale beachings are also one reason for the qualifier "foreseeable," in that it appears healthy whales may follow a sick leader when the latter beaches--as social animals, they instinctively trust their leader, which under most circumstances would not lead them to their doom, so their unexpected (to them) beaching cannot be considered genuinely suicidal. For that matter, a rabbit that walks out into an open field when there's a hungry owl nearby may be performing an action virtually guaranteed to result in death--but not foreseeably so. Nor would an animal that dies defending its young necessarily be considered suicidal, even if the enemy is something pretty much impossible to defeat; after all, the enemy might retreat if it doesn't seem worth the trouble, so sometimes defense works.

The reason for the clause "reproductively-capable" is that there are many social insects with sterile, suicidal soldiers or workers--for example, termite soldiers that explode their bodies, which are filled with sticky guts, immobilizing their enemies in goo. As a final note, the stuff about lemmings jumping off cliffs, of course, is a myth.

Answer 3

Bees stinging you can be considered a form of suicide, because the bee dies afterwards. This is what Hamlet was referring to when he was contemplating suicide, when he asked "To bee or not to bee"? :-)

Some people say lemmings commit suicide, but the whole thing has been disproven. It was a hoax perpetuated by Disney in some of their nature movies.

Animals will kill themselves if it's good for the colony. They'll sacrifice themselves if it means injuring a predator, to protect the others. This is common in the insect world, also many social animals do it.

Answer 4

Well most of the other answers are false, but there is one example that is true, and I can at least explain why instead of just speculating....
Honey bees have shown to kill themselves in defence of their hive. It all comes down to fitness. All organisms live to replicate their genetic material, to make copies of themselves. Worker bees are sterile females and can do no such thing. Their contribution to the gene pool is in the defence of their hive. All workers are 75% identical as it is with most Eusocial insect groups. So, by defending their colony against invaders, they are actually increasing their own biological fitness by every sister they save from death. Honey bees die when they become seperated from their stinger. They do this in order to increase the effectiveness of each sting. When honey bees sting, they will rip off most of their abdomen. The part that remains attached to the intended target contains two venom sacs and nerve impulses that continually pump venom, this ensures a more powerful dosage. The bee that detached will die shortly after, but it did its duty to defend its closest relatives. It is somewhat like the suicide bomber of the insect world....they take the bullet for something they cherish, and commit suicide in the process. Good Question! I hope that helped!

Answer 5

no. their mentality is not big enough to accomodate such a thought. suicide is something thought over for more than a lil while so only human beings can even think of doing such a thing and contemplate its consequences. it just so happens they get in the way of a vehicle or perish from malnourishment

Answer 6

Man is an animal( comes along with chimps,garillas,baboons under primates) that commits suicide

Answer 7

Yes, some animals are so depressed that they refuse to eat. They kind of just lose the will to live. In one book I read, there were two dogs and when one died, the other one slowly wasted away.

Answer 8

Don't lemmings jump off cliffs when the population gets too high?

And how about marine mammal beachings? People try to save them and put them back in the water but they keep on beaching themselves and die.

Answer 9

I tihkn the squirrels that stand in the middle of teh road in fron of my car are attempting suicide.

Answer 10

Several insects die after they mate.

I think for animals, suicide is more of an instinctual act.