Within the human population, there are occasionally people who behave in ways that go strongly against the norms of the group as a whole (namely, killing and injuring without reason). Will any given population of animals typically have “sociopaths” who deviate significantly from the behavior and norms of the group, and do things that ultimately undermine the continued success of the group? I’m not counting behavior that stems from diseases like rabies.
Jane Goodall observed a female chimpanzee (aptly named Passion, IIRC) who, together with her oldest daughter, would kidnap, kill, and eat the infants of other female chimpanzees. This was totally not normal chimp behavior.
Strange. I saw a Discovery channel thing in which the male leader of a chimp troup snatched the baby from one of their females and the rest of the troop ate it.
They said that kind of cannibalism is not common, but happens from time to time.
Was it that rare in Passion’s case because it was something she did all the time like a serial killer chimp?
That’s very interesting, but I guess I’m not that surprised about this happening with chimps. Chimps are kind of smart. Really where I was going with this was that I was wondering if there is any indication that a certain portion of every animal population is made up of “sociopaths”-- perhaps as some roundabout method of darwinism or population control. Just a thought.
Elephants are reported to have problems among their young who were raised without older females around, if I recall correctly.
Totally anecdotal, but when I visited the San Diego Wild Animal Park a few years ago, one of the tour guides told a story about a young male giraffe that would constantly harass the other animals roaming in the savannah-like habitat they have there. One day, a particularly bullied zebra turned around and bit the tip of the giraffe’s tail right off. Not sure if the giraffe learned its lesson.
Wow, I actually found an article about that giraffe, including a picture of him putting the beatdown on a buffalo.
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/wordpress/default/ivan-giraffe-the-passing-of-a-legend/
The article presents him in a considerably more positive light than the zookeeper described him, but it is an obituary. Don’t speak ill of the dead and all that.
If it’s the same program I saw it was the lack of male elephants that caused the issue. The teenage elephants were aggressive and killing rhinos, but with a big male to put the teens in their place, they stop, and didn’t go into must, or didn’t go in as long.
On the MPSIMS there is a post by someone who has a very aggressive and mean cat and she wants to know what to do. So I think even pets can have problems.
I’ve seen lots of nature shows where the lion or dog has issues and the pack drives him/her off and they live on the side of the pack where they can stay and aren’t bothered as long as they keep their distance.
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