Do Animals Commit Suicide?
From the beginning of time, do animals commit suicide? humans have contemplated the nature of animal behavior and have made attempts at summing up their conclusions in the form of human behavior — often conferring complex emotion and thought on our non-human counterparts. One of the best questions is whether animals can kill themselves. When they harm themselves or stop eating, it makes us wonder what they are feeling and what they know and what they are trying to do. Is such behavior anything like human suicide or just a misreading of instinct and survival?
The answer to this is a matter of scientific, philosophical and anecdotal evidence which has its limitations because it is difficult to recognize animals through the lens of human experience.
Suicide in Humans and Animals
To evaluate whether animals can “commit suicide” in the proper sense of the phrase, we first must clarify what this idea means. Suicide in humans is motivational; it suggests intent — a deliberate, conscious choice to take one’s life, often born from despair, psychological distress or a sense of no other choices remaining. The act demands both an awareness of your being and the intent to terminate it.
When we apply this framework to nonhuman animals, the waters get murky. Scientists and philosophers alike caution against anthropomorphizing — projecting human thoughts, emotions and behaviors onto creatures that might run on completely different systems. Since animals cannot express intent or experienced thinking in the way that humans do, it becomes exceedingly difficult to apply human concepts such as despair or suicidal ideation.
But while some anecdotes or studies suggest that animals may kill themselves in ways analogous to human suicide, none clearly show that an animal committing suicide is self-aware of its own motives.
For Suicidal Animals: Anecdotal Evidence
Dolphins and Whales
Marine mammals have long captured the imagination of anyone wondering what animals feel and what they know. Dolphins, for example, showcase an advanced level of cognition and self-awareness that has fascinated researchers. This has prompted some speculation about their emotional capability for despair.
There are stories of dolphins intentionally ending their lives. Ric O’Barry was a well known dolphin trainer turned conservationist, and he once told a story about a dolphin named Kathy. He realizes, during one moment, that Kathy — after years in captivity — had, refusal to come up for air, seemingly, of her own accord, stopped breathing. Unlike humans, dolphins breathe only when they consciously choose to do so, the dolphins have to think about taking a breath, and they can only breathe when they are on the surface of the ocean. O’Barry said he believed Kathy made a conscious decision not to breathe, which he considered a suicide.
Mass strandings of whales — in which entire pods beach themselves en masse, sometimes with fatal results — have also left scientists perplexed for decades. Although the causes behind these strandings are often environmental disruptions (like noise pollution or navigational mistakes), some researchers have speculated if emotional stress — or the pod’s bonds — play a role. If an exuberant whale in trouble beaches itself, the rest of the pod might follow, indicating not a group’s death wish but a communal response based on loyalty.
Depression-Like Behavior in Dogs
Dogs, beloved (and calumnied) for their emotional intelligence, are another group that has been included in discussions of animal grief and possible suicidal behavior. There are touching stories of dogs turning down food, becoming depressed, or even meandering into harm’s way after the death of a beloved person or animal friend.
One well-known story was of a dog in Greece that remained by its dead owner’s grave for weeks, refusing to eat or to leave, it was said. Many read this as one kind of grief-fueled suicidal act, while others insist they’re better understood as expressions of loyalty not as actual means of dying.
Other Animal Behaviors
Similarly, cases of bees or ants working in what looks like self-sacrifice can raise questions, too. Worker bees, for instance, sting would-be predators at the cost of their own death. They focus on the bigger picture, the hive, rather than themselves. But that’s instinctual, not a conscious decision, and scientists generally agree that such behavior isn’t comparable to the personal, voluntary aspect of human suicide.
The scientific view of self-destructive behavior in other species
From a scientific perspective, the idea of animals taking their own lives is highly contested. Animal behaviorists caution against assuming that animals comprehend concepts such as life and death like humans do. Instead, they argue that most self-destructive behaviors by animals can be more readily understood in terms of environmental stressors, instinct or illness.
Grief and Loss
There is a great deal of evidence that some animals experience something similar to grief, especially those that have elaborate social structures, such as elephants and chimpanzees, and certain species of birds. Elephants have been known to stop and mourn the bones of dead herd members, and some have shown signs of depression after losing a calf or a companion.
But the question of whether that grief coalesces into an intentional death, is still very much TBD. The self-destructive behaviors of grieving animals can often be attribute not to a conscious decision, but to physiological stressors — such as lack of appetite or compromised immunity.
Captivity and Stress
Captivity can severely impact an animal’s mental health. A lot of captive animals also display signs of stress or psychological problems, like pacing in circles over and over, mutilating themselves or refusing to eat. This behavior, a phenomenon called zoochosis, doesn’t indicate a desire to intentionally die, but rather that animals are suffering damage from the syndrome of environmental deprivation and confinement.
Cetaceans, including orcas and dolphins, are especially susceptible to such conditions. Captive dolphins often engage in dorsal fin collapse (a key point of well-being) or listless floating. Some researchers have argued that these behaviors may indicate severe distress, but nonetheless, this does not necessarily indicate suicidal intent.
Survival and Subversion
Animals are evolutionarily programme for survival. Evolution is all about self-preservation. When animals behave in ways that put them in harm’s way, it is with rare exceptions due to confusion, illness or extreme environmental stressors and not because the animal has an on-purpose wish to die. Like confuse birds flying into windows, or male arachnids meeting their end in the fangs of their female partners, such examples may sound grim, but they can be attribute to evolutionary mechanisms or split-second mistakes — or both.
Interpretations and Philosophical Questions
From a philosophical standpoint, the notion of animal suicide leads to more profound considerations regarding consciousness, agency and emotion. Suicide, as we humans typically define it, usually includes recognition of one’s mortality. But how far does this kind of self-awareness reach in the animal kingdom?
Studies on animal cognition show that some species have different levels of self-awareness. Using the mirror test, which tests self-awareness through reflection, only a few animals (e.g. elephants, dolphins, and magpies) have been confirmed to know self-awareness. This begs the question of whether these creatures can think about death — which is essential for suicide as we know it. But even for them, it is speculation whether they connect suffering to the urge to end their own existences.
Some experts contend that although animals experience fear and distress, they probably don’t possess the cognitive architecture to ponder existential concepts like life and death. They may experience pain or despair, but whether those experiences amount to an intent to end one’s life is a matter of considerable debate.
THE PROBLEM OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR INTERPRETATION
Perhaps the biggest challenge that this approach reveals is that we humans tend to project our emotions onto animals. Anthropomorphism can cause us to overinterpret animal behaviors through a human emotional lens. Consider, for example, that a dog refusing food upon the death of its owner may not have intentionally decided to die, but rather is reacting to stress hormones or changes in its routine.
Research on animal behavior, moreover, is based more on observation than on discourse, which complicates matters even further. Admittedly, advances in technology and neuroscience have given us some insight into the animal mind, but much remains educated guesswork. Even if you believe aggressive behavior was intend, the lack of verifiable verbal confirmation means that whatever you conclude based on the interpretation of animal actions remains purely aspirational.
Final Thoughts
Whether animals commit suicide involves deep scientific and philosophical uncertainties. From dolphins that refuse to come to the surface to dogs that mourn their owners, there are clearly some of this self-destructive behavior. But on further inspection, these behaviors are probably due to environmental stress, instinct or neurological disorientation — and not an intention to die.
What we do know is that animals, just like humans, are deeply influence by their surroundings and social bonds. They mourn and experience stress, and they deal with loss in ways that often mirror our own human experiences. Though we may never fully grasp the inner lives of animals, one thing is certain: our empathy and respect for them (no matter how elusive) is warrant.