Suicide is one of the most common causes of unnatural death and traumatic, claiming a large number of victims each year. It is a type of self-destructive behavior that has worried human beings since ancient times, generating in-depth research on the matter from areas such as psychology or medicine, seeking the causes and ways to prevent human beings from actively seeking their own death. But this type of behavior has not only been seen in humans.
Numerous cases have been documented of animals that have somehow caused their own death. Are these deaths the product of the will to die? Does suicide exist in animals? In this article we are going to make a brief reflection on this matter.
Suicide is understood as the performance of a behavior or series of behaviors that They aim to cause one’s own death. Generally, the person who carries it out has the intention of avoiding suffering in a situation that they do not have enough resources to handle, although the reasons why someone decides to take their own life can be multiple.
Suicide is an action that involves the will of one’s own being to bring about the end of one’s existence, with the active intention that the behavior emitted lead to death. It is necessary to take into account the concept of death, to know that we can die and that we have the ability to self-generate it. Therefore It involves a certain level of abstraction, and also planning. It also supposes the existence of an ego that wants to die, that is, of some type of self-awareness of oneself as a being.
These aspects have often made experts doubt the possibility of suicide existing or not in the animal world, as there is no evidence that they possess all these capabilities. It has been observed that multiple species react to the death of their fellow humans with anguish and regret, but it is unknown whether they are aware of their own mortality and that their behavior can lead to it.
Are there cases of suicide in animals?
There are numerous cases of animal suicides throughout history, or at least phenomena that have been identified as such. Since ancient times, we can see how different writings document the death of dogs due to starvation after the death of their owners (something that continues to happen today).
In more recent times, in 1845 a case was published in the Illustrated London News in which a dog, which had previously shown signs of declining behavior, had jumped into the water of a park without intending to swim, leaving its paws still with the supposed end of sinking. The dog was rescued, but after that he tried again. After several attempts the dog finally sank and died. The same type of behavior has been observed in other animals, such as ducks or penguins that have lost their mates or dolphins that they have stopped breathing (in these beings breathing is not semi-conscious as in us but conscious and voluntary).
Another typical example is that of lemmings, of which an alleged mass suicide has been documented when there is overpopulation. However, the truth is that this mass suicide is not such but is something that could occur accidentally when these animals try to migrate en masse towards areas with food availability and encounter different geographical features. They would be trying to find food, advancing with that purpose and not with the idea of killing themselves. In fact, it is speculated that in reality the image that we all have of these rodents falling off a cliff was a montage, its reliability being unclear.
Finally, the death of whales stranded on the beach is also considered by many to be suicide, although it may be due to disease.
Self-generated deaths
Regardless of what we consider suicide or what values animals can practice it or not, the truth is that there is evidence that multiple living beings have practiced different actions that have led to their own death.
The clearest and most well-known example is the case of many pets that, after the death of their owner, they stop eating until they die of starvation. This type of behavior has been observed since ancient times, with stories referring to this reaction in animals.
The same sometimes happens with some animals in the wild, who act in this way due to the death of their partner. Grief over the death of a loved one can also cause serious psychological damage in animals, with the presence of anxious and depressive symptoms being documented in different species. As a result of this fact, they lose their appetite. In the case of pets very close to their owner there have been reported cases in which they have remained next to his grave until their own death.
Another behavior of this type is found in animals in captivity and/or in a high stress situation. Specifically, many animals commit different self-harming acts that can end up causing severe damage or even death. An example is found in the blows that different cetaceans give each other against the margins of their enclosure.
Another type of self-generated death in animals is that used in order to protect another being, generally the creature’s offspring. For example, the parent can serve as a distraction so that its offspring flee or attack the aggressor to defend them even if this could cause death. However, in this case it is not suicide in the strict sense since the objective is not to die, but to protect the other even at the cost of one’s own life.
You can also find animals that generate their own death through biological defense mechanisms. For example, there are some types of ants that in the presence of enemies tense up and cause the rupture of certain glands that end up causing their body to explode. This type of suicide ends with the death of the enemy or predator, but also of the subject himself.
Finally, some parasites and fungi are known to generate suicidal behavior in different animals. This is what happens with ants when faced with different fungi of the Cordyceps genus, which end up looking for the stem of a leaf to bite it and wait for death while the fungus develops. In this case we would be talking about an induced suicide, in which the animal does not really plan or want to die. Other bacteria generate behaviors that can lead to suicidal behavior such as approaching or losing fear of predators.
Arguments of those who defend its existence
Until a few centuries ago, a large part of the population considered that only human beings were self-aware, capable of abstract thought and reflection. Therefore, under this type of thinking we would be facing the only animal species that would be capable of voluntarily and consciously causing death.
However, research has shown that this is not the case. Monkeys, dolphins, crows, parrots, rats and other species have shown in different experiments to have abilities that go beyond mere instinct.
There are multiple species that have manifested the ability to identify themselves, as occurs with primates and dolphins, and who manifest the capacity to become depressed and feel anxious (something visible in pets and animals in captivity, but also in animals in the wild). They have also shown signs of intelligence and the ability to sequence actions, as well as to communicate (there are even cases of animals that have learned sign language) and establish plans.
It has also been seen that many animals can reach the understanding that their actions may or may not have an effect on the situations they experience. A widely known example occurred in the experiments that originated the theory of learned helplessness, carried out with dogs that, when faced with electric shocks from which they originally could not escape, stopped trying to avoid them even when in another situation they only had to move to another side of the cage.
However, it is unknown if they have the same capacities in imagination, future projection and level of abstraction as human beings, or a sufficient level that would allow them to become capable of procuring their own death.
Arguments of those who deny its existence
Those who consider that animals do not have the capacity to commit suicide consider that the behaviors associated with autolysis are actually involuntary, with no intention to take one’s life as such.
The self-harm mentioned above, for example, could be explained as self-harm aimed at changing states of anxiety or stress, or seeking to free oneself from some type of suffering (which on the other hand makes them similar to the main reasons that usually lead to suicide). Death by starvation may be caused by grief, but this does not imply that there is a will to die. In this case it is proposed that the suffering and pain experienced occupy the mind of the animal, making you forget to eat. Suicide as a defense mechanism would be an instinctive and emotional reaction that would not really seek death but rather the defense of the colony or offspring.
Finally, the case of infestation by parasites or fungi is not related to a wish for death but rather to a death caused by external factors, which would not be considered suicide.
A realistic conclusion
Many of the cases that have been documented of animals that have caused their own death have a series of characteristics that may cast doubt on the validity of considering said action a suicide or not.
It is undeniable that some animals actively cause their own death, but it is much more difficult to determine whether his actions are really motivated by the desire to die. In this sense, science has not yet been able to determine this fact reliably, and there is not yet enough data to affirm or deny that animals have the capacity to commit suicide with full awareness that they are doing so.
