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Animal Suicide (Do Animals Commit Suicide Like Humans Do?)

Sounds to me as if they have been poisoned. Wasn't there a proposal to do just that to London's pigeons some time back? There was an outcry and a back-down, iirc. Maybe a freelance has taken the initiative?

I wish he'd do the same up here. I hate the winged rats! :evil:
 
Round her we sometimes get seagulls and swans with fishing line around their legs, which I'd imagine could lead to the lose of the leg.
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Yeah it cuts off the circulation and it eventually drops off.They get caught in all sorts of rubbish people throw away.

I wish he'd do the same up here. I hate the winged rats!
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Swimming with disease!
 
Pigeons have the irritating habit of staying put, until you reduce speed and only then do they fly away. I guess in their instinct "near" is a different measure than in mine, they have a lower margin of safety. I always decide that "I won't brake for the stupid bird next time" but I always do ...
 
Slightly off-topic, but I'm sure I have read that the octopus is the only non-human creature which has been known to commit suicide.

Sounds odd but apparently they are extremely intelligent.
 
Dolphins also commit suicide.
link
Link is dead; no archived version mentioning suicide found.

In situations of great stress in captivity they have been known to commit suicide by starvation, battering against walls, or drowning.
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Yes uair01 - I agree, sometimes theydo stay put: but the ones I see are directly in your wheel-path - if they don't move they're, well. sandwich material - I wonder if James W has a point - aqree, they might be too dugged to move (or even care). This is definately something new that I have noticed in the last 6mths or so. If it were a poison, I imagine there would be more of these. m

I have only noticed these in E London.

Regards
Baz
 
In the sense that it requires self-awareness, yes.

In the sense that it is an intelligent solution to life's problems for most people, no.
 
I wasn't. I was just pointing out that octopi are not the only non-human animal to commit suicide.
 
Anyway, back to suicidal birds - there have been loads of dead ones around here lately too. A late seagull just lying on the road the other day, and lots of gardens have had dead sparrows and magpies in them too. All very odd!
 
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stu neville said:
Anyway, back to suicidal birds - there have been loads of dead ones around here lately too. A late seagull just lying on the road the other day, and lots of gardens have had dead sparrows and magpies in them too. All very odd!
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Yes, I've noticed a few too, but just assumed they were road kill - which brings us back full circle: how much roadkill is just accidental, and how much is suicidal birds?

One I saw (a crow of some sort) was in the main street in Helston, and a man crossing the road stopped to look at it. A few months ago I took a photo near that spot, and by chance caught a crow in flight in the picture. I couldn't help wondering if it was the same bird...
 
On topic,I have had three birds in the last year fly directly into my drivers side window of my car,killing them instantly. I could see them hitting the front if I were driving and ran into them , but the drivers side window? There has been a lot of disturbance in the earths magnetic field these past two years due to sunspot and flare activity,so it could possibly be attributed to that , as they rely on the mag field to navigate.
Still it was very wierd.
 
Well, lemmings (not a bird but a little rodent), when confronted with a scarcity of food, immediately go and the older ones run off a cliff.
 
I can't copy and paste right now, or I'd link the articles here(I'm using a roomate's dodgy Mac with a non-functioning mouse). But a brief google of 'suicide and intelligence' brought up numerous articles about how either low-IQ or high-IQ can be correlated to suicide rates.

So the jury is still out, I guess. But I would imagine that offing oneself requires a bit of thought. Industrialized nations win, hands down, in terms of numbers of suicides per-capita, and average IQs are higher in industrialized nations (of course IQ tests are skewed, but that's a whole 'nother bag of worms).

It is still interesting, since suicide is typically thought of a human act, with all sorts of religious and societal baggage. Perhaps it is just another thing that living creatures sometimes consciously do.
 
ok, I don't know if this is relevant as the original post was about pigeons in London... But when I used to live in the country the grain trucks going through would spill loads of grain by the sides of the road... The birds, usually cockatoos and such, would eat so much that they would become full and bloated...and particularly sluggish when it came to getting out of the way of cars... the bird fatalities were fairly high and it did seem that they were more than slightly self destructive...Obviously in London there is probably going to be a lack of long haul grain trucks passing through...but does this happen in a certain place? Maybe outside a McDonalds or something where loats of people might have dropped food?
 
Re: Suicidal Pigeons (and/or other animals)

two animal suicide threads merged

bazizmaduno said:
The pigeons in question just sit in the road. They do not attempt to fly or run out of the way - they just sit there (as if on a nest.)

*snip*

I wonder if they want their time to come,or does anyone have another explanation?
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They just have a really s l o w reaction time therefore making it look for all intents and purposes as if they want to end their miserable, always scratting around for food in the gutter and having deformed, stumpy feet existence.

Although that being said, they're soon quick to fly off when a four-year-old runs at a flock of them in a park or civic square...
 
Nighthawk wrote:
There has been a lot of disturbance in the earths magnetic field these past two years due to sunspot and flare activity,so it could possibly be attributed to that , as they rely on the mag field to navigate.
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That's a fair point - I remember an item on the BBC about 2-3 years' ago where measurements had shown that the earth was 'bulging' (more than usual - the earth isn't a perfect sphere). I did a search for the scientists email address (some NASA guy) and sent a query regarding any correlation with a pending magnetic reversal. He was fairly sure that this 'bulging' wasn't related to any magnetic shift, but had no other explanation, save that it seemed to be confined to the upper levels of the crust/mantle.

On another note: where has the 'dawn chorus' gone this last year or so?
 
I had 2 mental pigeons desperately trying to squish themselves under my wheels this weekend.

Or maybe it was the same one. :?:

But regardless if it was one or 2 they/it was i) too bloody stupid to see the mad bint in the white car was driving directly at them ii) arrogant enough to know aforementioned bint would swerve iii) really did have a deathwish but was foiled in both attempts and did not have Pirelli stamped all over them.

Stupid creatures. Poison 'em all. Winged vermin.
 
Well for what it's worth, I have seen goldfish jump right out of the tank and land on the floor. Who's to say why they do it? Could be suicide.
 
now that you mention it....

I had a friend whose mouse killed itself by throwing itself off its wheel and slamming headfirst into the side of the cage...

of course, unbeknownst to the mouse, the wheel had just been oiled... so it's a bit hard to tell if this was suicide per se.
 
Redhead said:
Well for what it's worth, I have seen goldfish jump right out of the tank and land on the floor. Who's to say why they do it? Could be suicide.
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Yeah, I've seen this happen a lot. When I was a little kid I used to catch baby fish at the beach in my bucket and some of them would jump out (what a strange instinct - how and why did they learn to do this?). I've had some goldfish which were repeat offenders. I believe the cat may have had something to do with this, but again, how did goldfish learn to fear the cat peering in through the glass?
 
Perhaps the goldfish were leaping at insects flying above their bowls/tanks?
 
no. its probable them thinking it is water outside the tank and trying to make a break for freedom. anyway, goldfish only have a very short memory so if they really thought suicidaly, it would have to be subconsciously.

but then i could be totally and completly wrong!![/code]
 
Well, goldfish aren't blind. One may observe this by simply interacting with them. They will follow a finger pressed onto their tiny globe (thinking of filling their gullets, likely), and perhaps they can see even further. What with octopodes (octopi/puses) who conscioiusly leave their tanks and are much hardier and able to move through the inhospitably arid conditions that are normal to our biology, simply to eat some tasty crustacean in the next tank, it is not hard to 'make the leap' so to speak to the idea that goldfish get bored of their glassy cells and find that the gravel is not indeed brighter on the other side of the bowl. Poor stupid critters.
 
Volshebnik said:
What with octopodes (octopi/puses) who conscioiusly leave their tanks and are much hardier and able to move through the inhospitably arid conditions that are normal to our biology, simply to eat some tasty crustacean in the next tank.
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They can also squeeze through a letter box - can any one else see the makings of a great "creature" horror flick in those facts. :eek!!!!:
 
jimmyb said:
no. its probable them thinking it is water outside the tank and trying to make a break for freedom. anyway, goldfish only have a very short memory so if they really thought suicidaly, it would have to be subconsciously.

but then i could be totally and completly wrong!![/code]
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I have heard that goldfish have incredibly short memories but I don't know if I believe it. I used to have a tank of fish and every time a person came to the tank, the fish got very excited and brought their little fishy faces to the surface because they knew they'd be getting food. How would they know from one day to the next unless they remembered it?

And I always thought it was weird how their food was made from fish. But I guess all fish eat other fish---there's nothing else in the ocean. I hadn't thought about it before I had a tank full of the critters.
 
yeah, that is interesting. The fish can get into a habit of being fed in the same place everyday which in the wild is crucial to there feeding patterns-knowing where there is a lot of food. I dont think they can remember people or one of occurances.
 
A kamikaze canine?

Man dies after dog falls from overpass, hits car

Associated Press
Jan. 19, 2006 11:45 AM

LIVONIA, Mich. - A man has died after a dog apparently fell from a freeway overpass and crashed through the windshield of his car, police said Thursday.

Charles G. Jetchick, 81, was severely injured by the dog, which fell from an Interstate 96 overpass on Saturday afternoon. Jetchick died Wednesday at a Livonia hospital, Michigan State Police said.

A passenger in Jetchick's car, whom police would not identify, suffered minor injuries, said Sgt. Michael A. Shaw.

Police don't believe the dog, a 60- or 70-pound black Labrador retriever, was thrown from the Schoolcraft Road overpass in suburban Detroit. The dog probably fell by accident while trying to avoid a car, Shaw said.

"We don't know," he said. "That's why we're looking for witnesses."

The passenger in the car didn't see anything other than the dog crashing through the windshield, police said. Despite his injuries, Jetchick was able to steer his westbound car in a straight line and stop safely, Shaw said.

Troopers also questioned the dog's owner, Shaw said.

Shaw, who has been with the State Police for 11 years, said he's never encountered a similar incident.

"We've had rocks and other stuff like that fall off of overpasses. This would be the first dog we've had," he said.
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www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0119 ... 19-ON.html
 
Mighty_Emperor said:
A kamikaze canine?

Man dies after dog falls from overpass, hits car

Associated Press
Jan. 19, 2006 11:45 AM

LIVONIA, Mich. - A man has died after a dog apparently fell from a freeway overpass and crashed through the windshield of his car, police said Thursday.

Charles G. Jetchick, 81, was severely injured by the dog, which fell from an Interstate 96 overpass on Saturday afternoon. Jetchick died Wednesday at a Livonia hospital, Michigan State Police said.

A passenger in Jetchick's car, whom police would not identify, suffered minor injuries, said Sgt. Michael A. Shaw.

Police don't believe the dog, a 60- or 70-pound black Labrador retriever, was thrown from the Schoolcraft Road overpass in suburban Detroit. The dog probably fell by accident while trying to avoid a car, Shaw said.

"We don't know," he said. "That's why we're looking for witnesses."

The passenger in the car didn't see anything other than the dog crashing through the windshield, police said. Despite his injuries, Jetchick was able to steer his westbound car in a straight line and stop safely, Shaw said.

Troopers also questioned the dog's owner, Shaw said.

Shaw, who has been with the State Police for 11 years, said he's never encountered a similar incident.

"We've had rocks and other stuff like that fall off of overpasses. This would be the first dog we've had," he said.
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www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0119 ... 19-ON.html
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They never once mentioned if the dog is okay. I wonder....
 
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