The legend in my family is that after I was born, my parents’ Siamese kitty took up premanent residence under a radiator and slowly “cooked herself.”
Moving on, some animals do sort of commit suicide, though it’s improbable that they really comprehend what’s going on. I suspect animals aren’t really thinking about death. They just get this urge to do X, which results in their death.
Certain varieties of spider males commit suicide by mating; afterwards, they get eaten. Or insect drones who mate and then keel over and die.
What about insects who suicidally attack an aggressor to defend the hive/collective/whatever?
From the article:
Thanks Askance. My ignorance has been fought. Still gotta long way to go though…
Here’s a cite. They say it isn’t suicide but they also say they don’t know why dogs are doing this.
This site suggests that there may not have been five dogs; there is apparently only confirmation of one.
Cathy, one of the “Flippers” from the TV show Flipper committed suicide . In fact, it’s not rare for a sad, neglected, stressed bottlenose dolphin to commit suicide in captivity.
Jane Goodall reported in one of the National Geographic articles, I believe in the '70s, that one of the chimpanzees that was still a juvenile, stopped eating after its mother died. The mother had had several other babies that by that time were adult and seemed to try to mollify the juvenile’s grief without success. Eventually the young male starved to death. I recollect a poignant picture of the juvenile trying to wake the corpse of the mother where she lay, submerged in a stream.
Parrots can pluck their own feathers for physical or psychological reasons. When it’s really bad, they don’t stop with just the feathers, and tear at their own flesh like a person cutting himself. Sad and disturbing birdie picture.
I heard they do that from fight-or-flight. They’re sick and in pain, but they can’t see or smell the enemy that’s causing the pain. With no way to fight, they run and hide.
Do scorpions ever really sting themselves to death? Or is that another lemming-like UL?
Best. Answer. Ever.
Have you ever noticed how feral cats thrive in many areas? Feral pigs are better survivors than many indigenous species. Ever seen a feral sheep? Didn’t think so. Your average sheep would be lucky to survive overnight on its own. Having pulled a sheep out of my swimming pool and rescued a sheep that was stuck on its back and couldn’t roll over, I wonder how they survive in captivity.
Sheep are God’s gift to predators. They’re stupid, they’re slow, they have no defenses to speak of, and they taste yummy.
Here is the answer to your question…under the “suicide myth” heading.
Interesting, because I’ve been told that–and don’t laugh–that if you put tequila on a scorpion’s back, it will sting itself to death.
Why tequila? Don’t know. I just never felt like getting that close to one to find out.
There weren’t a whole lot of particulars in the AP report concerning the sheep.
Whatever started the sheep stampeding, they may not have been able to see the drop-off until they were right on it and the ones behind them crowding them over. Also, it was not stated that exactly 1500 sheep were in the flock and exactly 1500 went over the edge, leaving 0 on top of the hill, or any other numbers. It didn’t say how many people witnessed it, or from what angles it was seen.
The owner of the sheep may be wondering if the #*@! sheepherders had done some noisy goof-off and set them running, and could only come up with, “Gee Boss, they just all decided to commit suicide!”
PS, tame turkeys are dumber than sheep. You have a pen full of turkeys and a dog barks on one side of the pen, they all run to the other side, pile up, and suffocate the ones who get there first.
In the 1960s I dated a young man whose father was the head of a primate research laboratory associated with a university. One of the lab’s favorite residents was a young chimpanzee named Charlie Brown. Charlie was friendly and playful, and the graduate students who took care of him were extremely fond of him.
One of the graduate students came down with rubeola (measles). Since rubeola can be transmitted from man to chimp and vice versa, it was not known whether Charlie might have contracted the illness. Charlie was placed in quarantine, and was not permitted contact with other chimps or with his accustomed human handler-companions (none of whom had ever had rubeola).
The little guy became quite despondent. He refused to eat, and he whimpered in his sleep. One morning Charlie’s new handler found Charlie dead in his cage. The chimp had reached through the bars, grabbed a necktie that someone had left on a nearby desk, and managed to hang himself.
I read an account in National Geographic years ago about a group dogsledding across Canada. The lead dog, who was apparently very good but very stubborn, had to be disciplined once because he would not turn when signaled to several times. The discipline consisted of snapping a whip close to his nose. It was the first time the owner ever had to correct that dog.
When the group camped for the night the dog would not huddle with the other dogs for warmth but stood up facing the wind. Nothing the group did could get the dog to huddle with the others. By morning the dog was dead.
From the linked article
So maybe Cathy wasn’t really dead! Probably pining for the fjords.
Regards,
Shodan