Why Do Animals Eat Their Own Babies?

It might seem pretty dark from a human point of view, but for some animals, feasting on your own offspring is the best way to ensure you and your other babies might have a more successful life.

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[bentoth]

Takes "ordering off the kids menu" to a whole new meaning.

[CalLadyQED]

#1. The skink eating her eggs when snake attacks are too frequent reminds me of a story I heard about a battle. When the women saw from the camp that their army was routed, they dashed their infants on the rocks. Rather than let their babies be enslaved, molested, and slaughtered by the advancing enemy, these women preferred to quickly kill their offspring themselves. Babies are too young to run or fight, and carrying them slows you down. I wish I could recall which history podcast I heard this on and what people groups were involved.

[erichurst]

My sister and I got hamsters when we were kids, assured by the pet shop they were both female. Well, one was male, so the other got pregnant. The mother ate a couple of them, but left 2 alive. Then she died one night, and the babies ate most of her face.

[nevieland]

I was excited when I saw the thumbnail of this video (let me explain!!) I am a biology major at a research-heavy institution. We frequently hold biology seminars for doctors around the world to come and explain their findings. It's a crazy coincidence that most of the articles cited here for giant salamander research were actually presented to us at my college by Dr. Takahashi himself! I remembered seeing these images in this video also used in his presentation, which is just so cool to see^^

[edl]

@Hank, for the skinks there might be a benefit for the species as a whole by the mom eating the eggs rather than letting the snake get some of her investing energy back. If the majority of the time when a snake attacks a nest it is eventually rewarded with meal it will seek out that type of nest, on the other hand if the snake frequently puts a lot of effort into a particular nest and never gets a reward, it will seek out an easier meal. So eating her own eggs might be the equivalent of humans using bear proof canisters -- the purpose isn't so much about saving the food (or even garbage) for ourselves, but rather to not teach the bear that humans are an easy meal source.

[Miss_Trillium]

I was surprised rats and other rodent creatures didn't get mentioned--that was a rude awakening to me as a kid, we thought aww how cute mama's caring for her babies. Then, a day later, several were gone (despite being in a tight enclosure). We found a half eaten body, and later witnessed the mom chowing down

[Goalsplus]

In case # 1, denying the snake food could mean the snake dies and the lizard's next generation survives.

[Jobobn]

In #5's case, I could definitely see that kind of feeding (especially given that it's done after the colony is well established) acting as a way to inoculate the larvae against potential pathogens. After all, small quantities of pathogenic material on the queen's mouthparts could be transferred to a larva and better prepare its immune system for the kinds of pathogens it will encounter as an adult.

[ookamiblade]

We had a cat in our foster program that got named Hannibal, her one surviving kitten was dubbed Clarice

[nicklindberg]

If you have kids, you can kind of understand

[TragoudistrosMPH]

Grandma: "You're so cute I could just eat you up!"

[spindash]

Compared to the rest of the list, Giant Salamanders seem like straight up parent of the year material

[acoupleofschoes]

"...he either has to wait for his current clutch to hatch, or..."
[AD Break] Domino's new loaded tots are here.
Perfect

[GailGurman]

In high school biology, we were each assigned a mouse in a cage. The cage lid had a triangular fold where we could put food. One day I came in to find that my mouse had given birth to several babies. That weekend was a long one. I put as much food in the fold as I could (I had an idea of what was going to happen because it had happened to my lab partner). Unfortunately, when I came back in the following Tuesday, all the babies were gone.

The teacher explained that it was in the mother had a better chance of passing her genes to the next generation by keeping herself from starving and going on to have another litter. Of course, she had no way to know that she was in a lab and would never get to procreate again. :(

[Scraggledust]

Grew up in the country. Rabbits, cats, dogs, pigs, spiders, etc…seen each devour their babies up close. Nature is intriguing! Oh, and I didn’t eat my young😂

[miketacos]

You could make entire dysfunctional family sitcoms from each of these animals.

[jessicap]

Watching my mother raise 6 kids through their teenage years, including me... I understand why some animals eat their own babies.

[KnowledgeCat]

Really eye-opening content about a bizarre aspect of animal behavior. The explanations provided are both intriguing and enlightening!

[hitavi]

Honorable mention: scorpion mothers mate when there is a plentiplentiful food supply and keep their babies on their backs who grow by eating tiny food particles that drift by, and the mother scorpion will eat her babies when she feels hungry, the only ones growing to adulthood being the ones that were lucky enough to grow big enough to walk away before they got eaten

[Bowie_E]

Me, looking at my baby: "Because they're delicious"