Does anyone know if animals are capable of suicide? Not a heroic instance where they fight off something or someone to protect a family member, but suicide where they end up killing themselves. Can animals even process the thought of suicide?
2006-11-23 12:29:56 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
I don't believe animals have any capacity for thought except for instinct. All animals are food and survival driven. They can form loyalty and affection for others, and be trained to do certain things. Animals have no self awareness, therefore suicide would not be an option for them. They don't know they are cute or ugly big or small all they know is where to get food love and comfort and you don't have to be able to think for those things . For suicide you must have a reasoning system and they don't.
2006-11-23 12:41:03 · answer #1 · answered by ec1177 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
just so no one trys to perpetuate a myth, the story about lemmings jumping off cliffs to commit suicide is bogus:
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm
they say that sometimes when too many lemmings gather round a cliff a few may fall down, but they said the cameramen of very early era nature documentaries kind of staged the event of mass lemmings running to their deaths.
In the animal kingdom, it's survival of the fittest, so any animal that had an inkling of commiting suicide wouldn't survive long. Besides that, the notion of suicide is really abstract and emotional, which 99% of animals don't have.
But there are the whales that beach themselves. could that be considered suicide ?
2006-11-23 21:09:36 · answer #2 · answered by t timmy 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In the case of the Black widow spiders the mating process is equivalent to a suicide for the male spider.Once the mating is over the black widow kills the male and wounds him up in the silk as food for the offspring,Don't you think that the male approaches the female knowing that it is going to be killed after mating.
2006-11-23 20:41:23 · answer #3 · answered by Ramanadhan C 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Snakes in captivity when left without food for long are seen to commit suicide by biting their rear parts.
2006-11-23 22:49:57 · answer #4 · answered by Ishan26 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I do not believe that animals can reason. Others may argue, but this is my personal belief. I have heard people tell of horses committing suicide because of very difficult working conditions but I think it was exhaustion.
2006-11-23 20:39:45 · answer #5 · answered by tuscany 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Might..I mean if forced to..like penguins..I mean a whole bunch of penguins forces 1 penguin to jump into the water to see if there is a leopard seal in the water..and having no options it does that..and if there is a leopard seal in the water..then its RIP..if not then its dinner time!!
2006-11-24 03:16:09 · answer #6 · answered by farhan ferdous 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no we are the only species that does that
2006-11-25 21:50:47 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋