Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Density can lead to cannibalism

 

 I and some others have wondered if the huge numbers of humans on earth is triggering aggression and self destructive behaviors, maybe a way the species protects itself from the results of over-population. If so, with technological advances, it is acting too late to prevent catastrophe.

 I recently read this article.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-makes-animals-cannibals/

 

By Fionna M. D. Samuels on November 1, 2022

“Almost all predators express cannibalism when conditions get grim enough,” says Jay Rosenheim, an entomologist at the University of California, Davis. Some desperate herbivores do, too, he adds. After seeing predatory big-eyed bugs in California cotton fields begin gobbling up their own eggs despite a plethora of available prey, Rosenheim decided to investigate what motivates animals to become cannibals.

“The density of the population is often the key factor that throws that switch,” Rosenheim says.

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