geb@dsl.pitt.edu (Gordon E. Banks) (01/29/90)
>In article <12900@cbnewsd.ATT.COM> kja@cbnewsd.ATT.COM (krista.j.anderson) writes: >Then again, in view of the fact that *most* mammals don't >kill their rivals, > >1. that most mammals have an instinct that forces them to halt >aggressive behavior in response to submissive gestures and >postures. (If such an instinct were not part of the animals' >brain organization, the species would have failed to survive.) And do you suppose humans are any different in this regard (otherwise, WE would also have failed to survive!)? Learning about these submission gestures can help a lot in confrontations with persons in a position of dominance over you (such as when a cop has stopped you for a traffic violation). Fights in which a human is killed when our natural weapons (feet, fists, and teeth) are used are very very rare. The problem is we have equipped ourselves with unnatural weapons over which our instincts have less control (clubs, knives, guns, nuclear weapons...). See Kubrick's 2001 for a film dissertation on the subject. Unfortunately, our technology has run faster than our instincts can evolve to keep up with it. Our only hope is that we can use our intelligence to survive in spite of this.
J.M.Spencer@newcastle.ac.uk (J.M. Spencer) (01/30/90)
In article <2440@leah.Albany.Edu> ms361@leah.Albany.Edu (Mark Steinberger) writes: >In article <31315@shemp.CS.UCLA.EDU>, frazier@oahu.cs.ucla.edu (Greg Frazier) writes: >> There are many species of fish and reptile which prey upon >> their own young. ... On >> the other hand, it raises questions such as why don't mammilian >> carnivores such as bears exhibit this behavior? > >But apparently felines do prey on their own young. I've heard it say >about housecats, but can't give you a quote. But I do know >that it is explicitly stated in the National Geographic special on >tigers that tigers will prey on tiger young, and will also fight >to maim over one another's kills. (Maiming can easily cause death >in the wild.) > >--Mark When a nomadic lion defeats a lion that owns a pride (by biting the spine of the defending lion) his next act is to kill all the cubs (because they are not carrying *his* genes). The lionesses then flirt greatly with the new lion and will also abort their current pregnancies. [BBC television documentary on the African Lion c. 1988] This isn't preying on their own young in the true sense.