News0 min ago
Suicide
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.It's a complete myth about lemmings and suicide.
It only occurs in Disney wildlife films (where the film-maker forced lemmings off a cliff in order to show this mythical behaviour)
See;
http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.htm
when more then one whale or dolphin is beached it's because the first animal calls out to it's family group in distress and the others in the pod (group) come to try and help. As a result they often all become beached and die. I remember thinking that was the most tragic thing when i first heard it, it's very moving in a strange way...
But I don't think that other animals voluntarily kill them selves. Although animals in captivity often suffer from depression and can, to an extent self harm (birds pull out feathers, horses throw themselves against walls etc), I've never heard of animals taking action to kill themselves.
Surely suicide, as we conceive of it, is a deliberate act of self-murder. The problem, as far as other animals are concerned, is contained in the word 'deliberate', with its connotations of 'having been thought out' or - in your own words - 'voluntarily', with its connotations of acting by choice.
I do not believe any other creature has the mentality to carry out such a thinking process or even to have a concept of personal death at all. My answer to your question, therefore, is 'Yes.'
I found on a learned arctic wildlife website that ...
>>> "When there are too many lemmings.....they migrate to find food. Many drown by running into the rivers and lakes."
If that aint suicide (or plain stupidity) I don't know what is!! <<<
Well, put like that, Octavius, then by the same reasoning, the herds of wilderbeest on the African plains are trying to commit suicide, as "many drown by running into rivers". If you qualify it by saying they are actually attempting to cross the river or lake, it makes more sense, as you say, they are trying to migrate.