Malaria. Cholera. The black death. Syphilis. I could go on but you probably get the point…
Some examples in no particular order:
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Cowbirds lay eggs in other birds’ nests, and if the other bird kicks their eggs out, the cowbird will come back and destroy the nest.
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You’ve probably heard of female black widows eating the male after mating, but did you know that this is so common among spiders that the males of some species are literally hardwired to automatically die during or after mating? Makes the whole process easier and prevents the male from getting away.
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Toxoplasmosis mind controls mice and makes them seek out cats so they get eaten and the parasite can move on to the cat.
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The hyena birth canal. If you think human childbirth is excruciating… you’d be right actually, we’re pretty high up there on the list of animals with the worst birthing experiences, but hyenas have it even worse.
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There’s a parasite that goes into a fish’s mouth, eats its tongue, and attaches itself to where the tongue used to be and essentially becomes the fish’s tongue.
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Hamsters eat some of their own offspring if they have too many to ensure they have enough resources to properly care for the rest.
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Baby sharks try to kill and eat each other in the mother’s uterus.
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Humans are part of nature.
I agree. The boundary can easily become diffuse or even silly.
However, there’s a reason I asked what I asked. My ultimate purpose is to show that existence is not perfectly designed, that sometimes it is brutal and grotesque. Unfortunately, people often retort saying nature is brutal and grotesque because of humans. So, by focusing on non-human nature, I’m sidestepping the retort.
I always though the distinction between natural/unnatural is completely meaningless. We do not consider animal intelligence and its products “unnatural” but we somehow do this for humans.
Here’s some I know:
- Dolphins rape other dolphins https://theconversation.com/dolphin-sexual-politics-gets-the-tabloid-treatment-6063
- Praying mantis females often eat the head of males they have sex with. Some spiders do that too, like the appropriately named black widow spider. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_cannibalism
- Mass extinctions have occurred in the past, way before humans existed https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events
- Genetic mutations often lead to inviable offspring or awful conditions (I don’t know specific examples off the top of my head)
- Parasites can take control of insects and lead them to drown (also don’t know examples off the top of my head)
otters. baby otters. otters offering baby otters to be eaten first by predators.
Cordyceps fungus. Prion diseases like Chronic Wasting Disease.
Both are horrible
Cordyceps fungus
Holy crap. This gave me the creeps. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ophiocordyceps_unilateralis This opened the door to the broader category of parasitoids https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasitoid
Prion diseases
Truly scary stuff. I vaguely knew that genetic problems are a thing, but I didn’t know the specifics. Thanks for sharing this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion
Wild animals end up covered in ticks and sometimes even die from it
A lot of other organisms will eat their young. Kinda messed up. Some apes try ripping each other’s genitals off during fights. The insect world in general is pretty brutal tbh.
Predators eating prey alive, like lions eating bison from their bellies first.
Ouch. Looked it up. Its brutal. https://enviroliteracy.org/do-lions-eat-their-prey-alive/
TIL lions eat some prey alive because it saves the lions energy. They avoid spending too much energy killing a prey that is difficult to kill. Instead, they incapacitate (but not kill) a prey and start eating right away.
