[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: NFC: Re: Fishy Behaviour
chris at yonderway_com wrote:
>> > Very few land dwelling species eat their own
>> > young and I am not aware of any that do it to
>> > the degree that fish do.
>>
>>
>> Lions do. At least the males of the species anyway.
>> You think HUMAN males think with their genitals... male
>> lions will eat the young lions to cause the female to
>> come into heat again.
That's a partial story as I understand it. When new males move in and take over an existing pride by driving off the males of "the former regime," they have been then observed killing off the existing cubs ... which aren't theirs, of course. This has the effect of eliminating the genes that aren't directly theirs and also (as you say) brings the females back into heat faster than they would have otherwise, which is presumably the Darwinian double-bonus that makes such behavior advantageous to the genes of the perps.
I don't recall having heard they "eat" the young as we'd commonly understand that, nor that it happens under any circumstances over than new regime of bullies deposes former of regime of aging bullies.
HTH
Doug Dame
Interlachen FL
-------------------------------
Lived 6 yrs in Africa way back
when we simplistically thought
"lion good, hyena bad." But of
course everything I know that's
useful was on the Discovery Channel.