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> you certainly don’t gain anything by wanting to kill/eat human babies Actually, this is exactly what gorillas do. When there is a new alpha male, he will go

by jm__87 8y ago

> you certainly don’t gain anything by wanting to kill/eat human babies Actually, this is exactly what gorillas do. When there is a new alpha male, he will go and systematically kill all the baby gorillas who are still nursing. Why? So he can impregnate the mothers of these gorillas who are unable to reproduce while they are nursing. While human females can get pregnant while nursing a baby, they are less fertile during the first few months of breastfeeding. Now I'm not saying this the reason why some people have this impulse. Just thought I'd share some interesting info with you. Happy new year! Edit: I am not an expert on gorillas, just something I have recalled from reading Robert Sapolskys book, "Behave". I'm sure there is some nuance to this infanticidal behavior of gorillas which I have misrepresented. Apologies in advance to the primatologists who read my comment.

wallace_f 8y ago
You shouldn't lose complete confidence like that just because of some superficial disagreement. History is filled with examples of groups being very wrong.
- jm__87 8y ago
  Ah, I wouldn't say I've lost complete confidence in my statement. Just wanted to add a disclaimer in case I didn't fully remember the details correctly (perhaps it isn't all gorillas, just certain species of gorillas. Perhaps the female gorillas aren't entirely infertile, just significantly less so. Etc), as I don't have the book handy to validate.
jelliclesfarm 8y ago
This is true of cats too. Stray mother cats will keep moving her kittens because tomcats would seek out lactating mother cats, but will first kill the kittens before mating with her. Nature is brutal. Also in a way, the tomcat is making sure that his kittens won’t have to share resources with kittens from a different litter. P.S: that’s a great book by Sapolsky. I read it fully and just last night, I went back to it for light selective browsing. Very well written. Thanks for mentioning it.

by jm__87 8y ago

wallace_f 8y ago

You shouldn't lose complete confidence like that just because of some superficial disagreement. History is filled with examples of groups being very wrong.

jm__87 8y ago
Ah, I wouldn't say I've lost complete confidence in my statement. Just wanted to add a disclaimer in case I didn't fully remember the details correctly (perhaps it isn't all gorillas, just certain species of gorillas. Perhaps the female gorillas aren't entirely infertile, just significantly less so. Etc), as I don't have the book handy to validate.

jelliclesfarm 8y ago

This is true of cats too. Stray mother cats will keep moving her kittens because tomcats would seek out lactating mother cats, but will first kill the kittens before mating with her. Nature is brutal. Also in a way, the tomcat is making sure that his kittens won’t have to share resources with kittens from a different litter. P.S: that’s a great book by Sapolsky. I read it fully and just last night, I went back to it for light selective browsing. Very well written. Thanks for mentioning it.