a human phenomenon?

Question

are human the only species ever on earth to commit suicide? does this give either side of the evolution debate any clout? does this have some special significance that we can comtemplate such a thing?

but in the lemmings case do they know they are committing suicide?

Answer 1

Self preservation is one of the most powerful biological forces in the universe, it even supersedes the urge to reproduce and protect ones young in some species. No. animals do not commit suicide.

Altruism that leads to death among animals is quite common, for instance, common octopi look after their young and fail to feed themselves sometimes to the point of death, and some spiders are devoured by their young - neither would be considered suicide.

Some might say lemmings commit suicide but this is also a myth - the "jumping" off of cliffs is more of a over crowding, die by falling over cliffs or drowning in lakes or rivers and sometimes being pushed over the edge of a cliff by their nearest neighbor. The competition for food, mates and space becomes too intense. Lemmings are much more likely to kill each other than to kill themselves.

Answer 2

Have youi never heard of lemmings??? They commit suicide all the time and they even made a video game out of the poor creatures plight.

Answer 3

No, lemmings commit mass suicide, whales beach themselves. We humans do it when we get fed up with life.

Answer 4

No were not. I've seen many of possums commit suicide on many of roads. There prone to end their life on the pavement. And birds also, why else would they fly right into your car windshield.

Answer 5

My dad had an ornamental fish who attempted suicide 5x before it finally succeeded, after it's mate died. 1st few times it tried to drown itself by jumping out of the tank, my dad covered the tank, it got out again. He got a better cover and it/he proceeded to bash itself against the glass. Poor guy. :-(

I couldn't believe it myself but it's true.