The lion mother eats his child: Why is 'Tiger not eating children' but lion do so?

"Tiger does not eat children " - this is the proverb of the Vietnamese people, meaning that the mother will always do everything to protect her child, even if the mother is a wild and fierce species like a tiger.

But like many other proverbs, the above sentence is primarily a simile. In fact, nature can be much more devastating. For example, the recent tragic story with a species with a tiger family, for example, when Kigali lion mother at Leipzig zoo in Germany suddenly ate both of her children and gave birth to their babies. There is no warning signal.

Kigali lion

2 lion children are only about 3 days old, even people haven't even named it yet. According to information recorded from Leipzig zoo, Kigali is licking and grooming his children, suddenly becomes violent, grabs them and eats them both.

The tragic story at first glance seems a bit counterintuitive, because after all parents still have to do everything to protect their children, also a way to preserve their genome. But it turns out this is a more common phenomenon than we thought, and it happens to be not just tigers or lions.

Animals are not too fierce and eat meat, but why?

In 2013, the sloth bear, Khali, made the entire staff of the shocking Smithsonia National Zoo when he suddenly bent down, grabbed the newly born baby bear and devoured it. Not long after that, the second bear was attacked by his mother and died quickly.

Worried that Khali would continue to go crazy, zoo staff separated the last young bear and looked after it at the veterinary institute. However, here, they discovered that the young bear is seriously ill, and is suspicious of its two siblings as well. Affordable, is this the cause of Khali crazy and eating her baby?

One of the hypotheses of scientists with the case of baby carnivores is the same, because childbirth and child care are a difficult and trade-off process. When a baby in the herd shows signs of bad health, their mother may make a cruel decision to throw them away, to put all her strength into taking care of the healthier baby.

Even if the environment becomes too harsh, the food is not much and must make the choice to keep one's life or children, the mother animal may have to give up the child, choose to exist until the environment is adequate. to continue to give birth.

It sounds horrible and lacks humanity, but nature is so, harsh and cruel.

It is not uncommon for animals to eat young animals

But not yet! According to Tony Barthel, an animal behavior researcher at Smithsonia National Zoo, it is not a good idea to leave young animals alone, as it can attract the attention of the enemy. So, mother animals are forced to choose to eat their own children.

According to Barthel, the males in the herd did this, but for other reasons. For example, to increase the ability to maintain your genome, a male can kill offspring not his. The most striking example is dolphins - famous animals are gentle, but when you need male fish you can try to separate the offspring from your mother, then treat the child to continue mating.

No exception

Eating meat is very common in nature, and there seems to be no exception. According to Elise Huchard, an expert from the Center for Evolutionary Ecology, an estimated 25% of mammals have this behavior, not to mention fish, insects, amphibians and lizards. These species often live in groups, but there are a group of powerful males in the herd competing with each other.

To prevent the killing of offspring of aggressive males, many animals have devised their own strategies. Like baboons, females once mate with many males, so that they cannot know if the baby is a child that is not harassing. Even humans - we create a one-wife-one society to resolve this dispute.

Going back to the case of Kigali, the zoo staff cannot determine whether this lion's actions are true for survival. Simply because it eats both babies, no one checks how bad their health is.