# Are there serial killers in the animal kingdom?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-serial-killers-in-the-animal-kingdom/562569>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 1, 2010, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-serial-killers-in-the-animal-kingdom/562569 "2010-12-01T18:28:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2010, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-serial-killers-in-the-animal-kingdom/562569/21 "2010-12-04T00:24:12Z")

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> [@Zsofia](#):
>
> Not necessarily for fun, but wasn’t there a chimp in Jane Goodall’s observations whose baby died, so she stole and killed other baby chimps?

> [@Colibri](#):
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> [Passion](http://www.livescience.com/animals/070514_femchimp_killers.html) and her daughter Pom killed and ate several baby chimps, a behavior that has since been observed in other groups.

This is fascinating. I had never heard about this case but that is extremely interesting.

> [@mske](#):
>
> How about [animals who killed multiple humans](http://www.cracked.com/article_18483_the-5-creepiest-serial-killers-who-were-animals.html)?

Maybe these are _budding_ animal serial killers. You know how human serial killers usually start off killing animals? Maybe animal serial killers start off by killing humans 😉

> [@Sailboat](#):
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> Depending on your semantic niggling about the definition of “animal,” [humans are a species of chimpanzee](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_third_chimpanzee), and essentially vice versa, or we are so much the same that the differences are probably exaggerated in human minds. If humans have serial killers it seems likely _other_ chimp species share that trait.

Actually what prompted this question was a program I was watching on serial killers and one of “experts” (a criminal psychiatrist) was speculating that violence in our society (esp the gratuitous sort on tv & in movies) is what ‘creates’ serial killers…which of course suggests that serial murderers are made, not born (a theory I don’t subscribe to).

I have heard others draw similar conclusions about homosexuality…that it is a ‘learned behavior’. I know enough gay people to know that is wrong so when I first heard this, I looked into homosexuality in the animal kingdom and found that it indeed exists…which imo debunks the theory that sexual orientation is learned.

But I agree that if it is present in the animal kingdom, then serial killing is most likely NOT a learned behavior, but rather it is due to some organic, congenital cause.

(btw, I am in NO way comparing serial killers to homosexuals…was just attempting to debunk the myth using the same method).

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