![A lusitanicus cannibalizing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/A_lusitanicus_cannibalizing.jpg)
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as
food. Cannibalism is a common
ecological
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
.
Human cannibalism
Human cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh or internal organs of other human beings. A person who practices cannibalism is called a cannibal. The meaning of "cannibalism" has been extended into zoology to describe an in ...
is well documented, both in ancient and in recent times.
The rate of cannibalism increases in nutritionally poor environments as individuals turn to members of their own species as an additional food source.
[Elgar, M.A. & Crespi, B.J. (1992) ''Cannibalism: ecology and evolution among diverse taxa'', Oxford University Press, Oxford ngland New York.] Cannibalism regulates population numbers, whereby resources such as food, shelter and territory become more readily available with the decrease of potential competition. Although it may benefit the individual, it has been shown that the presence of cannibalism decreases the expected survival rate of the whole population and increases the risk of consuming a relative.
Other negative effects may include the increased risk of
pathogen
In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...
transmission as the encounter rate of hosts increases.
Cannibalism, however, does not—as once believed—occur only as a result of extreme food shortage or of artificial/unnatural conditions, but may also occur under natural conditions in a variety of species.
Cannibalism is prevalent in
aquatic ecosystem
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem formed by surrounding a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The t ...
s, in which up to approximately 90% of the
organism
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and ...
s engage in cannibalistic activity at some point in their
life-cycle. Cannibalism is not restricted to
carnivorous species: it also occurs in
herbivores and in
detritivores.
Sexual cannibalism
Sexual cannibalism is when an animal, usually the female, cannibalizes its mate prior to, during, or after copulation.Polis, G.A. & Farley, R.D. Behavior and Ecology of Mating in the journal of Arachnology 33-46 (1979). It is a trait observed in ...
normally involves the consumption of the male by the female individual before, during or after copulation.
Other forms of cannibalism include size-structured cannibalism and intrauterine cannibalism.
Behavioral, physiological and morphological adaptations have evolved to decrease the rate of cannibalism in individual species.
Benefits
In environments where food availability is constrained, individuals can receive extra nutrition and energy if they use members of their own species, also known as ''conspecifics'', as an additional food source. This would, in turn, increase the survival rate of the cannibal and thus provide an evolutionary advantage in environments where food is scarce.
[
] For example, female
Fletcher frogs lay their eggs in ephemeral pools that lack food resources. Therefore, in order to survive, tadpoles within the same clutch are forced to consume each other and exploit their conspecitics as the only available source of nutrition. A study conducted on another amphibian, the
wood frog
''Lithobates sylvaticus'' or ''Rana sylvatica'', commonly known as the wood frog, is a frog species that has a broad distribution over North America, extending from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several nota ...
, tadpoles showed that those that exhibited cannibalistic tendencies had faster growth rates and higher fitness levels than non-cannibals. An increase of size and growth would give them the added benefit of protection from potential predators such as other cannibals and give them an advantage when competing for resources.
The nutritional benefits of cannibalism may allow for the more efficient conversion of a conspecific diet into reusable resources than a fully herbaceous diet; as herbaceous diets may consist of excess elements which the animal has to expend energy to get rid of.
[
] This facilitates for faster development; however, a trade-off may occur as there may be less time to ingest these acquired resources. Studies have shown that there is a noticeable size difference between animals fed on a high conspecific diet which were smaller compared to those fed on a low conspecific diet.
Hence, individual fitness could only be increased if the balance between developmental rate and size is balanced out, with studies showing that this is achieved in low conspecific diets.
Cannibalism regulates population numbers and benefits the cannibalistic individual and its kin as resources such as extra shelter, territory and food are freed, thereby increasing the fitness of the cannibal
by lowering crowding effects. However, this is only the case if the cannibal recognizes its own kin as this won't hinder any future chances of perpetuating its genes in future generations. The elimination of competition can also increase mating opportunities, allowing further spread of an individual's genes.
Costs
Animals which have diets consisting of predominantly conspecific prey expose themselves to a greater risk of injury and expend more energy foraging for suitable prey as compared to non-cannibalistic species.
Predators often target younger or more vulnerable prey. However, the time necessitated by such selective predation could result in a failure to meet the predator's self-set
nutritional requirements. In addition, the consumption of conspecific prey may also involve the ingestion of defense compounds and
hormone
A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are require ...
s, which have the capacity to impact the developmental growth of the cannibal's offspring.
Hence, predators normally partake in a cannibalistic diet in conditions where alternative food sources are absent or not as readily available.
Failure to recognize kin prey is also a disadvantage, provided cannibals target and consume younger individuals. For example, a male
stickleback fish may often mistake their own "eggs" for their competitor's eggs, and hence would inadvertently eliminate some of its own genes from the available
gene pool.
Kin recognition Kin recognition, also called kin detection, is an organism's ability to distinguish between close genetic kin and non-kin. In evolutionary biology and psychology, such an ability is presumed to have evolved for inbreeding avoidance, though animals d ...
has been observed in
tadpole
A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found ...
s of the spadefoot toad, whereby cannibalistic tadpoles of the same clutch tended to avoid consuming and harming siblings, while eating other non-siblings.
The act of cannibalism may also facilitate trophic disease transmission within a population, though cannibalistically spread pathogens and parasites generally employ alternative modes of infection.
Diseases transmitted through cannibalism
Cannibalism can potentially reduce the prevalence of
parasites
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson ha ...
in the population by decreasing the number of susceptible hosts and indirectly killing the parasite in the host.
It has been shown in some studies that the risk of encountering an infected victim increases when there is a higher cannibalism rate, though this risk drops as the number of available hosts decreases.
However, this is only the case if the risk of disease transmission is low.
Cannibalism is an ineffective method of disease spread as cannibalism in the animal kingdom is normally a one-on-one interaction, and the spread of disease requires group cannibalism; thereby it is rare for a disease to have evolved to rely solely on cannibalism to spread. Usually there are different means of transmission, such as with direct contact, maternal transmission,
coprophagy
Coprophagia () or coprophagy () is the consumption of feces. The word is derived from the grc, κόπρος , "feces" and , "to eat". Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces-eating, including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), o ...
, and
necrophagy
Scavengers are animals that consume dead organisms that have died from causes other than predation or have been killed by other predators. While scavenging generally refers to carnivores feeding on carrion, it is also a herbivorous feeding be ...
with different species.
Infected individuals are more likely to be consumed than non-infected individuals, thus some research has suggested that the spread of disease may be a limiting factor to the prevalence of cannibalism in the population.
Some examples of diseases transmitted by cannibalism in mammals include
Kuru which is a
prion disease that degenerates the brain.
This disease was prevalent in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...
where tribes practiced
endocannibalism
Endocannibalism is a practice of cannibalism in one's own locality or community. Endocannibalism has also been used to describe the consumption of relics in a mortuary context.
As a cultural practice
Herodotus (3.38) mentions funerary cannib ...
in cannibalistic funeral rituals and consume the brains infected by these prions.
It is a
cerebellar
The cerebellum (Latin for "little brain") is a major feature of the hindbrain of all vertebrates. Although usually smaller than the cerebrum, in some animals such as the mormyrid fishes it may be as large as or even larger. In humans, the cereb ...
dysfunctional disease which has symptoms including a broad-based
gait and decreased motor activity control; however, the disease has a long
incubation period
Incubation period (also known as the latent period or latency period) is the time elapsed between exposure to a pathogenic organism, a chemical, or radiation, and when symptoms and signs are first apparent. In a typical infectious disease, the in ...
and symptoms may not appear until years later.
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, is an incurable and invariably fatal neurodegenerative disease of cattle. Symptoms include abnormal behavior, trouble walking, and weight loss. Later in the course of t ...
, or mad cow disease is another prion disease which is usually caused by feeding contaminated bovine tissue to other cattle.
[
] It is a
neurodegenerative
A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...
disease and could be spread to humans if the individual were to consume contaminated beef. The spread of parasites such as
nematodes may also be facilitated by cannibalism as eggs from these parasites are transferred more easily from one host to another.
Other forms of diseases include
sarcocystis
''Sarcocystis'' is a genus of protozoan parasites, with many species infecting mammals, reptiles and birds. Its name is dervived from Greek ''sarx'' = flesh and ''kystis'' = bladder.
The lifecycle of a typical member of this genus involves two ...
and
iridovirus
''Iridovirus'' is a genus of viruses in the family '' Iridoviridae''. Insects serve as natural hosts. Currently, only two species are placed in this genus. ''Invertebrate iridescent virus 6'' (IIV-6) was recognised as the type species until su ...
in reptiles and amphibians; granulosus virus,
chagas disease, and
microsporidia
Microsporidia are a group of spore-forming unicellular parasites. These spores contain an extrusion apparatus that has a coiled polar tube ending in an anchoring disc at the apical part of the spore. They were once considered protozoans or pr ...
in insects; stained prawn disease, white pot syndrome,
helminthes
Parasitic worms, also known as helminths, are large macroparasites; adults can generally be seen with the naked eye. Many are intestinal worms that are soil-transmitted and infect the gastrointestinal tract. Other parasitic worms such as sc ...
and
tapeworms
Cestoda is a class of parasitic worms in the flatworm phylum (Platyhelminthes). Most of the species—and the best-known—are those in the subclass Eucestoda; they are ribbon-like worms as adults, known as tapeworms. Their bodies consist of ...
in crustaceans and fish.
Foraging dynamics
Cannibalism may become apparent when direct competition for limited resources forces individuals to use other conspecific individuals as an additional resource to maintain their metabolic rates.
Hunger drives individuals to increase their foraging rates, which in turn decreases their attack threshold and tolerance to other conspecific individuals. As resources dwindle, individuals are forced to change their behaviour which may lead to
animal migration
Animal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individual animals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is the most common form of migration in ecology. It is found in all major animal groups, including birds, mammals, fish, reptile ...
, confrontation, or cannibalism.
Cannibalism rates increase with increasing population density as it becomes more advantageous to prey on conspecific organisms than to forage in the environment.
This is because the encounter rate between predator and prey increases, making cannibalism more convenient and beneficial than foraging within the environment. Over time, the dynamics within the population change as those with cannibalistic tendencies may receive additional nutritional benefits and increase the size ratio of predator to prey. The presence of smaller prey, or prey which are at a vulnerable stage of their life cycle, increases the chances of cannibalism occurring due to the reduced risk of injury. A feedback loop occurs when increasing rates of cannibalism decreases population densities, leading to an increased abundance of alternative food sources; making it more beneficial to forage within the environment than for cannibalism to occur.
When population numbers and foraging rates increase, the carrying capacity for that resource in the area may be reached, thus forcing individuals to look for other resources such as conspecific prey.
Sexual cannibalism
Sexual cannibalism is present largely in spiders and other
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s, including
gastropods
The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda ().
This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. The ...
.
This refers to the killing and consumption of
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...
sexual partners during courtship, and during or after copulation. Normally, it is the female which consumes the conspecific male organism, though there have been some reported cases of the male consuming the adult female, however, this has only been recorded under laboratory conditions.
Sexual cannibalism has been recorded in the female
redback spider
The redback spider (''Latrodectus hasselti''), also known as the Australian black widow, is a species of highly venomous spider believed to originate in South Australia or adjacent Western Australian deserts, but now found throughout Australi ...
,
black widow spider
''Latrodectus'' is a broadly distributed genus of spiders with several species that are commonly known as the true widows. This group is composed of those often loosely called black widow spiders, brown widow spiders, and similar spiders. Howeve ...
,
praying mantis
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...
, and
scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...
, among others.
In most species of spiders, the consumption of the male individual occurs before
copulation
Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure or reproduction.Sexual intercourse most commonly means penile–vaginal penetra ...
and the male fails to transfer his sperm into the female.
This may be due to mistaken identity such as in the case of the
orb weaving spider which holds little tolerance to any spider which is present in its web and may mistake the vibrations for those of a prey item.
Other reasons for male consumption before mating may include female choice and the nutritional advantages of cannibalism.
[
] The size of the male spider may play a part in determining its reproductive success as smaller males are less likely to be consumed during pre-copulation; however, larger males may be able to prevent the smaller ones from gaining access to the female.
There exists a conflict of interest between males and females, as females may be more inclined to turn to cannibalism as a source of nutritional intake while the male's interest is mostly focused on ensuring paternity of the future generations.
It was found that cannibalistic females produced offspring with greater survival rates than non-cannibalistic females, as cannibals produced greater
clutches
A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts) ...
and larger egg sizes. Hence, species such as the male
dark fishing spider of the family
Dolomedes
''Dolomedes'' is a genus of large spiders of the family Pisauridae. They are also known as fishing spiders, raft spiders, dock spiders or wharf spiders. Almost all ''Dolomedes'' species are semiaquatic, with the exception of the tree-dwelling ...
self-sacrifice and spontaneously die during copulation to facilitate their own consumption by the female, thereby increasing the chance of survivorship of future offspring.
Sexual dimorphism
Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most an ...
has been theorised to have arisen from sexual selection as smaller males were captured more easily than larger males; however, it is also possible that sexual cannibalism only occurs due to the difference in size between male and females.
Data comparing female and male spider body length shows that there is little support for the prior theory as there is not much correlation between body size and the presence of sexual cannibalism. Not all species of spiders which partake in sexual cannibalism exhibit size dimorphism.
The avoidance of sexual cannibalism is present in many male species to increase their rate of survival, whereby the male uses cautionary methods to lower the risk of his consumption.
Male orb weaving spiders would often wait for females to
moult
In biology, moulting (British English), or molting (American English), also known as sloughing, shedding, or in many invertebrates, ecdysis, is the manner in which an animal routinely casts off a part of its body (often, but not always, an outer ...
or to finish eating before attempting to initiate mating, as the females are less likely to attack.
Males which are vulnerable to post-copulation consumption may gather mating thread to generate a mechanical tension which they could use to spring away after insemination, while other spiders such as the crab spider may tangle the female's legs in webs to reduce the risk of the female capturing him.
Male choice is common in
mantids
Mantidae is one of the largest families in the order of praying mantises, based on the type species '' Mantis religiosa''; however, most genera are tropical or subtropical. Historically, this was the only family in the order, and many referen ...
whereby males were observed to choose fatter females due to the reduced risk of attack and were more hesitant to approach starved females.
Size-structured cannibalism
![Mononchidae eating a Mononchidae 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Mononchidae_eating_a_Mononchidae_1.jpg)
Size-structured cannibalism is cannibalism in which older, larger, more mature individuals consume smaller, younger
conspecific
Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species.
Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organis ...
s. In size-structured populations, (where populations are made of individuals of various sizes, ages, and maturities), cannibalism can be responsible for 8% (
Belding's ground squirrel
Belding's ground squirrel (''Urocitellus beldingi''), also called pot gut, sage rat or picket-pin, is a squirrel that lives on mountains in the western United States. In California, it often is found at in meadows between Lake Tahoe
Lake Ta ...
) to 95% (
dragonfly larva
A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle.
...
e) of the total mortality,
making it a significant and important factor for population and community dynamics.
Size-structured cannibalism has commonly been observed in the wild for a variety of
taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
. Vertebrate examples include
chimpanzees, where groups of adult males have been observed to attack and consume infants.
Filial cannibalism
Filial cannibalism is a specific type of size-structured cannibalism in which adults eat their own offspring.
Although most often thought of as parents eating live young, filial cannibalism includes parental consumption of
stillborn
Stillbirth is typically defined as fetal death at or after 20 or 28 weeks of pregnancy, depending on the source. It results in a baby born without signs of life. A stillbirth can result in the feeling of guilt or grief in the mother. The ter ...
infants and
miscarried fetuses as well as infertile and still-incubating eggs. Vertebrate examples include
pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus ...
s, where
savaging accounts for a sizable percentage of total piglet deaths, and
cat
The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...
s.
Filial cannibalism is particularly common in
teleost
Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tele ...
fishes, appearing in at least seventeen different families of teleosts. Within this diverse group of fish, there have been many, variable explanations of the possible adaptive value of filial cannibalism. One of these is the energy-based hypothesis, which suggests that fish eat their offspring when they are low on energy as an investment in future reproductive success.
This has been supported by experimental evidence, showing that male
three-spined stickleback
The three-spined stickleback (''Gasterosteus aculeatus'') is a fish native to most inland and coastal waters north of 30°N. It has long been a subject of scientific study for many reasons. It shows great morphological variation throughout its ra ...
s,
male
tessellated darters, and male
sphinx blenny fish all consume or absorb their own eggs to maintain their physical conditions. In other words, when males of a fish species are low on energy, it might sometimes be beneficial for them to feed on their own offspring to survive and invest in future reproductive success.
Another hypothesis as to the adaptive value of filial cannibalism in
teleost
Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tele ...
s is that it increases density-dependent egg survivorship. In other words, filial cannibalism simply increases overall reproductive success by helping the other eggs make it to maturity by thinning out the numbers. Possible explanations as to why this is so include increasing oxygen availability to the remaining eggs, the negative effects of accumulating embryo waste,
and predation.
In some species of
eusocial
Eusociality (from Greek εὖ ''eu'' "good" and social), the highest level of organization of sociality, is defined by the following characteristics: cooperative brood care (including care of offspring from other individuals), overlapping gen ...
wasps, such as ''
Polistes chinensis'', the reproducing female will kill and feed younger larvae to her older brood. This occurs under food stressed conditions in order to ensure that the first generation of workers emerges without delay.
Further evidence also suggests that occasionally filial cannibalism might occur as a by-product of
cuckoldry in fish
Spawn is the eggs and sperm released or deposited into water by aquatic animals. As a verb, ''to spawn'' refers to the process of releasing the eggs and sperm, and the act of both sexes is called spawning. Most aquatic animals, except for aquati ...
. Males consume broods, which may include their own offspring, when they believe a certain percentage of the brood contains genetic material that is not theirs.
It is not always the parent that cannibalizes the offspring; in some spiders, mothers have been observed to feed themselves to their brood as the ultimate provision from mother to children, known as
matriphagy.
The
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
''
Coelophysis
''Coelophysis'' ( traditionally; or , as heard more commonly in recent decades) is an extinct genus of coelophysid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 228 to 201.3 million years ago during the latter part of the Triassic Period fro ...
'' was once suspected to practice this form of cannibalism but this turned out to be wrong, although ''
Deinonychus
''Deinonychus'' ( ; ) is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur with one described species, ''Deinonychus antirrhopus''. This species, which could grow up to long, lived during the early Cretaceous Period, about 115–108 million y ...
'' may have done so. Skeletal remains from subadults with missing parts are suspected of having been eaten by other ''Deinonychus'', mainly full-grown adults.
Infanticide
Infanticide is the killing of a non-adult animal by an adult of the same species. Infanticide is often, but not always, accompanied by cannibalism. It is often displayed in
lions; a male lion encroaching on the territory of a rival pride will often kill any existing cubs fathered by other males; this brings the lionesses into heat more quickly, enabling the invading lion to sire his own young. This is an example of cannibalistic behaviour in a genetic context.
In many species of
Lepidoptera, such as ''
Cupido minimus'' and the
Indian mealmoth
The Indianmeal moth (''Plodia interpunctella''), also spelled Indian meal moth and Indian-meal moth, is a pyraloid moth of the family Pyralidae. Alternative common names are weevil moth, pantry moth, flour moth or grain moth. The almond moth ...
, the first larvae to hatch will consume the other eggs or smaller larvae on the host plant, decreasing competition.
Intrauterine cannibalism
Intrauterine cannibalism
Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is well documented, bo ...
is a behaviour in some carnivorous species, in which multiple embryos are created at impregnation, but only one or two are born. The larger or stronger ones consume their less-developed siblings as a source of nutrients.
In adelphophagy or embryophagy, the fetus eats sibling embryos, while in
oophagy
Oophagy ( ) sometimes ovophagy, literally "egg eating", is the practice of
embryos feeding on eggs produced by the ovary while still inside the mother's uterus. The word oophagy is formed from the classical Greek (, "egg") and classical Greek (, ...
it feeds on eggs.
Adelphophagy occurs in some marine gastropods (
calyptraeids,
muricids,
vermetids, and
buccinids) and in some marine
annelids (''
Boccardia proboscidia'' in
Spionidae).
Intrauterine cannibalism is known to occur in
lamnoid sharks such as the
sand tiger shark
The sand tiger shark (''Carcharias taurus''), gray nurse shark, spotted ragged-tooth shark or blue-nurse sand tiger, is a species of shark that inhabits subtropical and temperate waters worldwide. It inhabits the continental shelf, from sandy sho ...
, and in the
fire salamander, as well as in some
teleost
Teleostei (; Greek ''teleios'' "complete" + ''osteon'' "bone"), members of which are known as teleosts ), is, by far, the largest infraclass in the class Actinopterygii, the ray-finned fishes, containing 96% of all extant species of fish. Tele ...
fishes.
The
Carboniferous period
chimaera, ''
Delphyodontos dacriformes'', is suspected of having practiced intrauterine cannibalism, also, due to the sharp teeth of the recently born (or possibly aborted) juveniles, and the presence of
fecal
Feces ( or faeces), known colloquially and in slang as poo and poop, are the solid or semi-solid remains of food that was not digested in the small intestine, and has been broken down by bacteria in the large intestine. Feces contain a relati ...
matter in the juveniles' intestines.
Protection against cannibalism
Animals have evolved protection to prevent and deter potential predators such as those from their own kind.
Many amphibian eggs are gelatinous and toxic to decrease edibility. Often, adults would lay their eggs in crevices, holes, or empty nesting sites to hide their eggs from potential conspecific predators which tend to ingest the eggs for an additional nutritional benefit or to get rid of genetic competition. In amphibians, the development of non-aquatic egg deposition has helped increase the survival rates of their young by the evolution of viviparity or direct development.
In bees, worker policing occurs to prohibit worker reproduction, whereby workers cannibalize other worker laid eggs.
Queen laid eggs have a different scent than worker laid eggs, allowing workers to differentiate between the two, allowing them to nurture and protect queen laid eggs rather than cannibalising them.
Parental presence at nesting sites is also a common method of protection against infanticide committed by conspecific individuals, whereby the parent exhibits defensive displays to ward off potential predators. Parental investment in newborns are generally higher during their early stages of development whereby behaviours such as aggression, territorial behaviour, and pregnancy blocking become more apparent.
Morphological plasticity helps an individual account for different predation stresses, thereby increasing individual survival rates.
Japanese brown frog tadpoles have been shown to exhibit morphological plasticity when they are in a high stress environment where cannibalism between tadpoles and more developed individuals were present. Shifting their morphology plays a key role in their survival, creating bulkier bodies when put into environments where more developed tadpoles were present, to make it difficult for the individuals to swallow them whole.
Diet shifts between different stages of development have also evolved to decrease competition between each stage, thereby increasing the amount of food availability so that there is a decreased chance that the individuals will turn to cannibalism as an additional food source.
Cannibalism in the media
Cannibalism has been a subject for horror movies since the 1980s. This genre is called
cannibal films. In
Planet Dinosaur it shows two
Majungasaurus
''Majungasaurus'' (; ) is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in Madagascar from 70 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, making it one of the last known non-avian dinosaurs that went extinct during the ...
fighting to eat each other.
Cannibalism has also been a subject of
video games
Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedbac ...
. More recently, cannibalism has been featured in a positive light, with video games like ''
Ark: Survival Evolved'' incentivizing players' virtual characters to eat each other.
Games featuring Cannibalism
/ref>
See also
* Anthropophage
An anthropophage or ''anthropophagus'' (from el, ανθρωποφάγος , translit=anthrōpophagos, "human-eater", plural el, ανθρωποφάγοι , translit=anthropophagi) was a member of a mythical race of cannibals described first by ...
* Cannibalism in poultry
*
* Man-eater
A man-eater is an animal that preys on humans as a pattern of hunting behavior. This does not include the scavenging of corpses, a single attack born of opportunity or desperate hunger, or the incidental eating of a human that the animal has kil ...
* Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571
The Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 was a chartered flight from Montevideo, Uruguay, bound for Santiago, Chile, that crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disast ...
References
Further reading
* M. A. Elgar and Bernard J. Crespi (eds.). 1992. ''Cannibalism: Ecology and Evolution of Cannibalism among Diverse Taxa'' Oxford University Press, New York. (361pp)
{{Authority control
Carnivory
Ethology