Animals that eat their own babies | – Times of India

Cannibalism, the act of consuming individuals of the same species, is a startling yet natural behaviour observed across the animal kingdom. This practice, while seemingly gruesome, often arises from a need for survival or reproductive advantage. Insects like praying mantises and spiders exhibit sexual cannibalism, where females consume males to boost reproductive success.
Mammals such as chimpanzees and lions engage in infanticide, killing offspring to eliminate competition and enhance their own breeding opportunities. Even herbivores like hippos and rodents resort to cannibalism under extreme conditions, revealing the complex interplay between survival, resource scarcity, and evolutionary strategy. Discover the animals that eat their own offspring.

10 animals that eat their own species

In Kibale Forest National Park, Uganda, the alpha male chimpanzee is a striking presence. While primarily herbivorous, chimpanzees occasionally hunt for meat, including monkeys and bush pigs. In some grim cases, they also engage in cannibalism, consuming their own species. This is notably observed with newborn infants, particularly when male chimpanzees are uncertain of their paternity. Such behaviour is thought to serve multiple purposes: it eliminates potential competition, frees up mating opportunities with new females, and enhances their reproductive success.

In the Masai Mara, Kenya, a male lion’s dominance is marked by a ruthless practice: killing the cubs of a pride when he takes over. This act, known as infanticide, ensures that the new leader does not invest resources in cubs that are not his own and accelerates the breeding process with the pride’s females. Occasionally, this behaviour involves cannibalism, and they tend to consume their own babies although it’s not always the case.

In Chobe National Park, Botswana, hippos display a surprising behavior despite their herbivorous diet: they sometimes partake in strategic infanticide. However, rather than eating their own young, they have been observed consuming the corpses of other adults. This rare behaviour is thought to occur in extreme situations when food sources are scarce.

European hamsters, found in Austria, are known for a disturbing aspect of their behaviour: maternal cannibalism. In times of vitamin and mineral deficiency, mother hamsters may consume their own newborns, both in captivity and in the wild. This grim strategy helps address nutritional shortages at the cost of their offspring.

Crab spiders, like those on blue flag iris, exhibit a unique form of cannibalism known as matriphagy. To ensure their offspring’s survival, a female crab spider may sacrifice her own life, providing her body as a meal for her young. This strategy is an evolved survival mechanism seen primarily in insects and arachnids.

Ringed caecilians, underground amphibians, also practice matriphagy, but in a less fatal way. The mother produces a nutrient-rich outer layer of skin that the young feed on. This skin regenerates every three days, allowing the young to grow rapidly while the mother remains alive.

In Queensland, Australia, cane toads exhibit sibling cannibalism among their tadpoles. Larger tadpoles prey on their smaller, newly hatched siblings. This behaviour, driven by competition for limited resources, has led to faster maturation rates in Australian tadpoles compared to their South American counterparts.

The European praying mantis is notorious for sexual cannibalism. After mating, the female often decapitates and consumes the male. This behaviour, while brutal, is thought to increase the female’s reproductive success by boosting her fertility, although it also provides the male with an evolutionary benefit in some contexts.

Southern black widow spiders are infamous for their sexual cannibalism. The female frequently devours the smaller male, sometimes during copulation. This behavior, which includes instances of “copulatory suicide,” where males deliberately position themselves for consumption, has earned the spiders their ominous name.

Polar bears, typically not known for cannibalism, have increasingly been observed engaging in it due to severe environmental pressures. Climate change has led to reduced hunting grounds and food scarcity, prompting some polar bears to turn on each other, a once-rare behaviour that has become more common as their natural food sources diminish.