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I find this social behavior amazing. And I'm very surprised that humans are capable of it. This is a behavior often recognised in animals that are in captivity.
by operatorequals 7y ago
I find this social behavior amazing. And I'm very surprised that humans are capable of it. This is a behavior often recognised in animals that are in captivity.
Personal experience is with some finches. Finches refuse to hatch their fertilised eggs by breaking them, if they were forced to mate in a cage. I was a breeder for a brief while.
- majos 7y agoDo you have a third-party source for this? Never heard of this behavior.
- glbrew 7y agoIt's called infanticide and it's very common throughout nature. Just recently a lion in a German zoo ate her newborn cubs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide_(zoology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infanticide_(zoology) https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/europe/germany-lioness-eats-cubs-zoo-grm-scli-intl/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/08/europe/germany-lioness-eats-c...
- majos 7y agoGood point. But parent comment described infanticide by finches as a response to captivity, as if they were deliberately preventing offspring from growing up in captivity. In contrast, the "motives" given in the Wiki article are either 1. sexual conflict (e.g. offspring of a rival male), or 2. resource scarcity. The CNN article seems more similar, even as the zoo is very careful not to say the behavior is caused by captivity.
- api 7y agoPerhaps certain modern societies are a bit like zoos in which we have placed ourselves on exhibit.
- lolc 7y agoHaha yes modernity does compare[0] to zoos. We're self-domesticating. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Zoo_(book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Zoo_(book)