Can animals be suicidal?

[jmowreader]

I'm kinda bumming about this right now...this morning I was running I-55 through Mississippi when a coyote, one back leg in the air, limped out in front of my truck. I couldn't swerve to miss him because there was a car in that lane, so I unfortunately had to squash him. I don't think he felt the impact.

Perhaps he somehow knew if he did this he wouldn't be in pain anymore. It's still sad.

[Obamanaut]

1. I think they can be depressed and/or sad, so why not suicidal. nt

[BlooInBloo]

2. If one anthropomorphizes enough, they can be anything one wants them to be.

[jmowreader]

3. True, but this wasn't an anthromorphic coyote

It was a real one that went to some effort to go out in front of a very large vehicle and get hit. Obviously it had seen dead animals on the roadways before--if you were a coyote you couldn't help but see them.

[optimal-tomato]

30. If this helps you get through the grief...

Here's an anthropomorphic coyote asking you for your help. You helped him.

[Avalux]

4. I'm sorry that happened to you.

To answer your question - I don't think animals can be suicidal, where they actively think and plan to kill themselves. Instinct perhaps plays a part in an animal 'giving up'. Don't beat yourself up about it too much because if the poor thing was injured, he might have suffered a great deal if you hadn't hit him.

I know how you feel though. I hit a fawn once; didn't kill it but injured it and it couldn't get up. The mother watched from the woods as I wrapped her baby in a blanket, put it in the back seat of my car and took it to the wild animal refuge. They couldn't save it; it's pelvis was broken. I cried and cried over that and still feel bad about it.

[the other one]

5. Anyone who has a pet knows

that animals are people with fur. If my dog looks guilty, it is because he has already dumped the trash on the kitchen floor.

Animals have deep inner lives.

[MadMaddie]

6. Animals have a 6th sense of when death is near

One of my favorite dogs (she adopted us), she had suffered seizures for about a year and late one night she got up and went underneath the bad and passed away.

Yes, I believe they know.

[InvisibleTouch]

7. I don't know about actively and intentionally...

...putting themselves in a position to die, but they can certainly get so sad and depressed that they stop eating and get sick and die.

Sorry to hear you had this experience. I'd be upset too - but the coyote probably came to a more painless end this way than he would have if he'd wasted away from his injury, starved from being unable to hunt, or became prey for another animal.

[timo]

8. ??? maybe

whales beach themselves dont they? and for a whale...thats suicide??

[Uncle Joe]

9. Either that or lemmings are extremely optimistic about their swimming capabilities. n/t

[dorkulon]

26. Lemming suicide is fiction

http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

[Uncle Joe]

32. Thanks for the link, dorkulon.

I stand corrected.:thumbsup:

[dorkulon]

33. It's very common

In part due to the "documentary" mentioned at the link (which I have clear recollections of having seen as a kid), and in part due to the fact that it's just an irresistible metaphor.

[safeinOhio]

10. Most likely it was just a cry for help that went too far.

[undeterred]

11. I agree that animals have more feeling than we often realize

but I think they truly live in the moment. Its not that different from a young child, who can't possibly understand what death is. Even teenagers don't truly seem to understand that death is forever.

When my old dog died last year, he was too weak to seek seclusion- he needed my help to stand up. When I put him on my bed he snuggled up against me and his body shut down over the course of a few minutes. He knew something was very wrong, but I don't know if he knew it was the end. And even though I'd been expecting it, his death was still a shock to me.

When my young dog kills a baby bird that just fell out of the nest, all he seems to think is, "doesn't move around and squeak any more...no fun".

[asjr]

12. I wish I could remember when this PBS

program aired. Does anyone remember the Jane Goodall program on chimps? She did several I think but there was one in particular that made me cry. It was about the Alpha female who had babies time and again and one baby in particular was spoiled rotten and each time his mom had another baby he would latch on to one teat while his new sibling was on the other. This happened each time Mom had a new one. Mom finally died and this spoiled one (wish I could remember his name) was so devastated he made a bed in a tree and stayed there until he died of starvation.

[Ladyhawk]

29. Flo=mother; Flint=spoiled chimp nt

[TwilightGardener]

13. I'd bet the poor thing was just in terrible pain and wasn't able to

pay attenion to its surroundings, or was desperate to find relief or comfort and was maybe headed back to its den across the highway. I've watched animals suffer and die both as a shelter volunteer and as a pet owner, and they are invariably confused and seek relief however they can until the end comes--pure instinct. I don't think they're capable of higher thought than that.

[lunatica]

14. Lady Jane Goodall was convinced chimps would die of a broken heart

She even filmed the depression one of her favorite chimps after his mother died. He simply wouldn't eat, play or have anything to do with other chimps or people because his heart was broken and he was found dead soon thereafter for no apparent reason. She said she and her crew tried very hard to engage with him and to feed him. He simply refused to eat or respond.

[asjr]

15. See reply 12. This is what I was writing about.

[lunatica]

20. that's the same chimp I was referring to

It was heartbreaking to watch him so sad and utterly depressed. I truly believe he committed suicide by refusing to eat.

[valerief]

16. People are animals and people can be suicidal. nt

[scheming daemons]

17. Humans are animals.... we can be suicidal.... so yes... the question is already answered

People who separate humans from the animal kingdom in their minds amuse me.


We're mammals. We're not separate from the animal kingdom.


We happen to have big brains and opposable thumbs. This allowed us to have the ingenuity to create civilizations.

If dolphins walked on land and had opposable thumbs, they'd have done it too.

[Cetacea]

22. Larger brains evolved into a mostly gravity free environment.

If we are truly past the tipping point, then it folllows that opposable thumbs were highly over rated.

[appal_jack]

18. I had a golden retriever/husky mix that may have been

Sierra was a great dog I adopted from some pretty negligent student/owners who were getting busted after trying to sneak her into their dorm. We ranged over the country together from Ohio to Mass. to Cali. then NC, with family visits to NYC besides. Lots of good times together.

When she hit her teens, she slowed down considerably. I tried to keep her comfortable, but hip and leg troubles severely curtailed her mobility during her last year of life. During visits to the vet, we tried lots of options from nutritional (glucosamine/chondroitin/vitamin C/etc.) to conventional medicine (steroids, etc.) to alternative stuff (acupuncture, dog-chiropractic, etc.) but she kept going down-hill and seemed to be pretty depressed about it. She tended to sleep beneath a porch most of the time during summer afternoons.

One such afternoon, the UPS truck came up the drive. By the time I walked up the hill to meet the driver, he had an ashen look on his face, and said 'I think I just hit your dog.' I had seen him drive-up, so I knew he wasn't speeding or being recklesss. The driver said that she basically ran out from under the porch to under his wheel (I was walking from the opposite direction, so I could seee the truck, but not my dog). Sierra never really was a car-chaser, and when we lived in cities, she displayed a pretty good sense about being properly wary of cars (I was in rural NC by then though, and the UPS truck was climbing a curving inclined gravel drive).

So all I can imagine was that Sierra decided to end it before she got worse, and that big UPS truck wheels struck her as a suitable means to do the deed.

A lame coyote would also know that his days were numbered. I think that they are plenty-smart enough to prefer a quick death on the interstate over a slow, agonizing starvation.

Sorry to hear of your mishap, but be at peace.

-app

[BuyingThyme]

19. I guess it depends on the definition of SUICIDAL.

Are spawning salmon suicidal?

[deaniac21]

21. I would suggest he was concentrating on his leg and your

presence was unnoticed.

[nolabear]

23. No. There's no evidence for suicidality in animals.

There is evidence of depression, even of dying as a result of mourning in some highly socially developed animals such as elephants and chimpanzees,but it's more likely your poor coyote was frightened, in pain, and possibly disoriented if it had already been hit. I'm really sorry it happened to you but, sad to say, it was probably better than a slow death from infection or starvation.

[Cetacea]

25. The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 2001-05

In situations of great stress in captivity they (dolphins) have been known to commit suicide by starvation, battering against walls, or drowning.

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition 2001-05

[Cetacea]

24. self delete

[david13]

27. No he was not trying to die. If he wanted to die, he would have

slinked off alone to do so.
He was either just crossing the road, or sometimes, they lose their fear of humans, and turn to them for help.
They present their wounds to you. They realize they are a goner unless they can get some help, and they try that.
They throw themselves at your mercy. They realize it to be their only hope.
Trying to make them seem like humans, no, they are animals.
Sometimes, if you do try to help them, then still, they will bite you.
Most animals will not let you see or touch a wound if they have one.
I think this one was just disoriented and confused. And went the wrong way.
It is not your fault.
dc

[havocmom]

28. There was something today about cows jumping to their deaths

Where was that? Seemed pretty strange.

Do whales beach out of confusion or could it be suicide by one and rest following?

[1]

31. bullshit...

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. A bird will fall frozen dead from a bough without ever having felt sorry for itself."

bullshit...