32 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



seen many times. In menageries many little Bears are born 

 and a large proportion killed by the mother. It may be 

 objected that she killed them accidentally in her anxiety to carry 

 them beyond the reach of man, but the detailed cases given in 

 the Lynx and Otter chapters cannot be so explained. This 

 generalization I draw, that when man tampers with the young 

 it oftentimes so affects or obliterates the maternal instinct that 

 the mother deliberately destroys her own offspring. 



Whether or not this occurs in a state of nature is another 

 question. The hunters and trappers generally believe that 

 it does. The male parent especially is charged with oc- 

 casional infanticide. The evidence is conflicting. 



SUICIDE If suicide means realization of the fact that such and such 



an act means death and escape from certain unpleasant condi- 

 tions, and that this full realization is followed by deliberate 

 choice of death, then animal suicide is not proven and is not 

 likely to be. 



If, on the other hand, we allow it to be suicide when the 

 animal, driven frantic by grief, pain, anger, or despair, blindly 

 turns its destructive powers against itself — that is, allows its 

 destructive or defiant instincts to overpower its self-preserva- 

 tive instincts with results disastrous and sometimes fatal — 

 then is animal suicide of frequent occurrence. 



There are many degrees of this. 



An orang which I was watching in Philadelphia flew into 

 a fit of jealous rage on seeing the keeper give some favourite 

 food to its neighbour only, and dashed its own head against the 

 floor violently and repeatedly. 



Wolves suffering the pains of poisoning often bite their 

 own legs and flanks. 



A Blackbear observed by Richard Kearton was so in- 

 furiated at its strong fellow-prisoner getting all the cakes 

 thrown in, that it bit its own paws. 



In each of these cases we see a form of suicidal instinct, 

 which needs only to be pushed a little further to be literally 

 suicide. 



