Eating friends for dinner? Wow, that sounds really scary! However, for some animals, it is a common thing to eat their “friends”. That’s what we call cannibalism.
Cannibalism is defined simply as the practice of eating another animal from the same species. Some of you may think that cannibalism is only done by carnivorous animals which simply eat other animals.
However, it is also possible for herbivores and detritivores. All you need to know about cannibalism in animal kingdom will fulfill your curiosity about cannibalism.
Why do animals practice cannibalism? It is simply because they demand more food to eat as they do not have any food left and to control population of the same species. Some animals even eat their baby in order to sacrifice it so the other babies can stay alive.
- Praying Mantis
Praying mantis is one of the animals which practices cannibalism to its mate. Due to its mating ritual, the female praying mantis usually tears off the male’s head and eats it.
It is kind of scary to imagine the members of the same species are killing each other even for mating matter. The female praying mantis does this because it wants to enrich herself for delivering her babies.
- Polar Bear
Who never thought that polar bear can be a cannibal? I never thought it will be one. Though polar bear is one of the adorable mammals of Antartica, in fact, due to extreme climate change is the reason behind this.
The melting ice blocks have made it difficult for polar bears to hunt for their prey, such as seals. In recent years, there are some pictures showing some polar bears are eating the immature member in the wild.
They do this because they are lack of food and they have to eat in order to survive. Get to know more about polar bear in these distinctive features of polar bear.
- Crab Spider
This is another sacrifice of mother. Crab spiders, especially the female ones, will provide unfertilized eggs and even their own body for their young.
They do this in order to make sure that their young are getting enough food to stay alive. This makes the crab spiders become one of the top 8 animals that practice cannibalism you’ve never thought before.
- Sand Tiger Shark
This is the most shocking cannibalism practice among animals. Sand tiger sharks even practice cannibalism since they are in their mother’s womb.
There are usually multiple offspring of different male sharks inside the womb. When the fetuses are mature enough, they will start to “fight” with each other in a battle and there will be only one surviving.
- Tiger Salamanders
Tiger salamander is also known as one of the animals that practices cannibalism. They start practicing cannibalism since they are young, like around in the age of 4 weeks.
They usually do this because they want to avoid shortage of food. By killing other members of their own, then the others will have enough food for survival.
- Frogs
Another example of the top 8 animals that practice cannibalism you’ve never thought before is frog. Frogs are likely to eat other frogs for some factors, such as size or species. A frog which size is larger tends to eat smaller frogs.
A frog also tends to eat other frog (s) that is/are “strangers”. If a frog meets another frog that is not native, it will probably eat it. In some cases, some frogs even eat their own siblings.
- Chicken
Chicken eats chicken? Who ever thought about this? If you feel guilty about eating chicken eggs, you may stop it now because even their moms eat them. Chickens which eat their own eggs do not have any idea about what they are doing.
So, when they feel hungry and spot some eggs in front of them, they will just eat it without feeling guilty to the babies inside. That’s kind of shocking, isn’t it? If you plan to breed chicken at home, these tips on how to stop your chickens from eating their eggs will surely be useful.
- Earwigs
We all know that mom has the greatest sacrifice for her babies. Earwigs moms also do this for their babies. Their babies have become cannibals once they are born.
In contrast to some parents animals who eat their babies, these earwigs eat their moms after they reach the end of their care cycles. Their moms sacrifice themselves for their babies in order to keep them alive as a source of food.
Those are the top 8 animals that practice cannibalism you’ve never thought before. Cannibalism may seem scary for us, humans. But after knowing all the reasons behind their cannibalism practice, that’s their way of staying alive, their instinct of being animals. In life, sometimes we need to sacrifice for the ones we love, so do the animals.
Another interesting topics about animals are their loyalty to their partners. There are monogamous animals that only need 1 partner in life while some animals are polygamous that cannot live with only 1 partner. That’s really incredible to know that there are a lot of information to be learnt.