Why don't or why can't animals commit suicide ?

Question

This qun. might seem somewhat silly to some people. But human beings commit suicide , so why don't animals ? Is it because they don't know anything about how to do that, I mean because they are less intelligent creatures. I don't know if any research has been done on this subject ?!!

Answer 1

Some animals can "shut down" and stop eating and waste themselves to death for reasons not related to escaping physical suffering, such as cancer pain, but due to a terrible emotional loss of a beloved fellow creature.

Answer 2

Whatever, ever hear of lemmings? They commit suicide regularly by jumping off cliffs.Lemming populations go through rapid growths and subsequent crashes that have entered popular consciousness as a supposedly "widespread" phenomenon, first noted in an encyclopaedia in 1908 but famously promulgated by the Walt Disney Pictures film, White Wilderness. White Wilderness depicted a mass suicide using staged footage of a dozen or so tame lemmings purposely driven into the sea. Based on this myth, the term "lemming" is often used in slang to denote those who mindlessly follow the crowd, even if destruction is the result.

In fact, the behavior of lemmings is much the same as that of many other rodents which have periodic population booms and then disperse in all directions, seeking the food and shelter that their natural habitat cannot provide. The actual reason for their 'suicide' deaths is because lemmings have poor eyesight and cannot distinguish a small river, which they can easily cross, from a fjord, in which they will almost surely drown

Answer 3

Actually to say they don't isn't quite right, lemmings do...but as a form of population control. Animals that get depressed enough that they would rather not go on living, generally6 die due to failure to thrive. (they simply give up...stop eating etc.) but consider too...animals don't have the means to commit suicide readily available (when was the last time you saw a tiger with a knife, or a tiger with pills?) If they're despondant enough to do the deed it's usually executed by the animal getting into a fight they know they can't win, and wouldn't normally enter into.

Answer 4

I would guess it is primarily due to the intelligence gap. Perhaps some animals are not aware that they will eventually die at all. Or, they might not see the possibility of terminating themselves even if they are conscious of death.

Animal brains are also more instinct-centered whereas the cerebral cortex plays a greater role in human thought. It is the "instinct" to stay alive that prevents the majority of people from comitting suicide, and if there are no complex thoughts to override this then it is not possible.

Answer 5

Animals do, in fact commit suicide: IF you count whales, dolphins and porpoises that intentinally beach themsleves as suicide.

For the most part animals have a much more highly developed drive for survival than humans have and they will fight to the last breath to stay alive, even when there is no escaping death. They have not had that instinct conditioned out of them. Admittedly, most animals don't have a developed since of themselves or an understanding of death and mortality, but even so their instincts are such that survival is one of their strongest drives, almost as stongs asnthe mating instinct.

Answer 6

Other animals commit suicide. Prove that they don't. Horses have been known to do it. When given a decision between one horrible consequence and the cliff behind them most animals have been seen to take the latter.

Answer 7

I think some animals do. Maybe we wouldn't call it suicide, but I believe there are some animals who just figure it is their time to die.

Only humans have enough sense, or nonsense, depending on how you look at it, to actually pick a specific reason for dying.

Answer 8

Animals do commit suicide.
There have been many cases when the master of a dog died and then the dog refused to eat and so the dog ended up dead also. Then you have wild horses who (unconsciously, of course) if scared run so desperately that they even jump in precipices.
You also have horses who refuse to eat if their water and food is not clean (they literally don't eat it!). So, of course, they don't really use quite our methods BUT they do commit suicide; sometimes consciously, other times unconsciously.

Answer 9

cuz theyre not stupid.lol
There is no reason for them to. All they want in life is something to fullfill their hunger and thirst and sometime to play. Anima;s are not aware of such things because theyre animals and do not have the humans brain to to think of doing so or so. Also, human beings are facultative and can take actions and make decisions for themselves. Animals are obligate, thus, they are restricted to a particular condition of life.

Answer 10

Good point but I wonder about the number of dead Armadillos and Possums I see on the roads.Could they be thinning out their groups but a form of suicide?