# Do all carnivorous and/or omnivorous animals turn to cannibalism under stress? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028 "2008-02-25T01:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/1 "2008-02-25T01:31:12Z")
Are there \*any \* omnivorous or carnivorous animals that will not eat members it’s own species if hungry and desperate enough? ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/2 "2008-02-25T01:36:45Z")
Anteaters. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/3 "2008-02-25T13:45:59Z")
Do you ask just about eating, or do you think about hunting and killing? I guess hungry anteater would eat another anteater if it was killed and diced into small enough pieces… ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/4 "2008-02-25T17:17:21Z")
Baleen whales…if you consider them carnivorous (against krill). I’d think pretty much anything with specialized mouthparts or a really large disparity with its prey size would not be able to cannibalize. Sailboat ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/5 "2008-02-27T10:29:16Z")
[QUOTE=astro] Are there \*any \* omnivorous or carnivorous animals that will not eat members it’s own species if hungry and desperate enough? [/QUOTE] Never mind that, you’ll be hard presssed to find a carnivore that doesn’t indulge in cannibalism on a fairly regular basis even if it isn’t desparate. Cannibalism seem to be the norm for carniivores and, aside from the aforementioned animals with specialised mouthparts, I can’t thinik of any that don’t indulge in cannibalism on a fairly routine basis. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2008, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/6 "2008-02-27T15:02:21Z")
[QUOTE=Blake] Never mind that, you’ll be hard presssed to find a carnivore that doesn’t indulge in cannibalism on a fairly regular basis even if it isn’t desparate. Cannibalism seem to be the norm for carniivores and, aside from the aforementioned animals with specialised mouthparts, I can’t thinik of any that don’t indulge in cannibalism on a fairly routine basis. [/QUOTE] Well, since we’re in GQ…_CITE!_ ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/7 "2008-03-02T01:17:04Z")
You want a reference that I can’t think of any carnivorous animals that don’t engage in routine cannibalism? OK, Blake, 2008. “I can’t thinik of any that don’t indulge in cannibalism on a fairly routine basis”. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/8 "2008-03-02T01:26:26Z")
[QUOTE=Flander] Well, since we’re in GQ…_CITE!_ [/QUOTE] > **[Cannibalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannibalism_%28zoology%29)** > > Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well documented, both in ancient and in recent times. > The rate of cannibalism increases in nutritionally poor environments as individuals turn to members of their own species as an additional food source. Cannibalism regulates population numbers, whereby resources suc... It’s not terribly specific, and they don’t link to the source material, but that’s something. ---
**Author:** ![SharkB8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@SharkB8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SharkB8)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2008, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-all-carnivorous-and-or-omnivorous-animals-turn-to-cannibalism-under-stress/439028/9 "2008-03-02T03:54:01Z")
An anecdote: When I was a wee lass, I begged my parents for gerbils. Oh, how the little mouse-like animals loved me. I kept their cage nice and clean, with fresh wood shavings. Their water bottle was always filled to the brim with fresh tap water, and I fed them delicious and nutrient-rich pellets a couple times every day… So why, God, why did I come home from school one day to see my darling Morgan’s skin peeled back and ribs picked clean? I was about 8 or 9 years old, and you can imagine, 16 years later, I can still picture my poor mangled gerbil’s corpse as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. True story. I don’t think she just blew up spontaneously or anything. I’m fairly confident that Precious [ate](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerbil#Fighting) her. And for those of you curious about what became of sweet, sweet Precious? As if learning at a young age the physical anatomy of the gerbil was not enough, I came home to find that Precious had “gotten hers” when I found her snapped into an “L” shape between the beam and the stand in the treadmill.