Not only do they happily eat one another, but some even morph, developing more prominent teeth and a broader head to facilitate their penchant for the unpalatable. Tiger salamanders represent a BIG exception to this rule, however. Apart from the cute and cuddly ones, that is. While few of us are surprised by cannibalism in the insect world, it proves less common among vertebrates. Whether we’re talking dwarf hamsters, Robo hamsters, or Syrian hamsters, they’re ALL cannibals. This behavior isn’t relegated to one species, either. And the bloodbath doesn’t stop there.Īdult hamsters also kill and eat one another for various reasons, including territorial disputes. They include everything from the inability to defend their babies to perceived signs of weakness or disease. Hamster moms have a long list of reasons they eat their young. Of course, rabbits have nothing on their smaller cousins, hamsters. Some even eat their babies to keep their nests tidy! Triggers include a nearby predator, stress, thirst, or temperature drops. Besides a rumbly tummy, rabbit moms will eat their babies at the first sign of trouble. Particularly among some of the cutest and cuddliest species on the planet.įor example, rabbits may look adorable, but when it comes to raising babies, sometimes hunger gets in the way. Cute and Cuddly CannibalsĪlthough matriphagy can be a thing among insects, arachnids, and caecilians, there are far more instances of voracious moms in the animal world. Babies feed on their mother’s oviduct lining and later her outer skin. The only vertebrate known to participate in this behavior is the caecilian, a group of limbless, serpentine amphibians. These include arachnids such as crab and desert spiders and pseudoscorpions. Talk about motherly devotion!īesides hump earwigs, a handful of other bug moms make the ultimate sacrifice. This survival mechanism delays the dispersal of nymphs from the nest, resulting in higher overall survival rates. To maximize the likelihood their babies survive, mothers often allow their offspring to consume them. While this leads to lower risks of predation by other animals, it comes with a tradeoff: fewer resources. Mothers reproduce during the colder months. Scientists believe hump earwigs resort to this because of the time of year the babies hatch. You see, humps are the only species of earwigs that participate in matriphagy-or consuming their mothers. But for baby hump earwigs, it’s all about their self-sacrificing (literally!) mothers. Some insects and arachnids (e.g., praying mantises and black widow spiders) develop a fatal taste for their mates. A few months later, the scientists returned, finding all but a few stray ants had made their escape. Despite a lack of reproduction, their ranks got regularly repopulated each time a worker “fell through the cracks.” Before leaving the nuclear-weapons bunker, scientists set up a wooden plank to act as a boardwalk, allowing the ants an escape route back above ground. To survive, the worker ants continued their social tasks, even building a makeshift mound from dirt in the bunker.
Scientists discovered that 93 percent of the two million ant corpses inside the bunker had bite marks or puncture holes, indicating cannibalism. So, the workers adapted, evolving into a queenless “colony” that survived through cannibalism. Once lost in the grim remains of the shelter, there was no escape or food. Unfortunately, over the years, a steady stream of unlucky worker ants had fallen through the pipe, landing in the bunker. The colony teemed above ground in the bunker’s ventilation pipe. While inspecting a mid-20 th-century abandoned nuclear bunker, they stumbled across nearly a million trapped wood ants that had resorted to cannibalism. In July 2015, scientists in western Poland made a grisly discovery. This real-life story has been making headlines for several years now.
One million cannibal ants trapped in a Soviet-era nuclear bunker? While this sounds like the makings of a B-rated sci-fi flick, think again. Here’s the lowdown on animal cannibalism and why it’s still a dog-eat-dog world for plenty of Earth’s creatures.
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