Why do some species eat their children?

Eating meat sounds like an impossible thing, but actually some species from fish to birds still do it. Scientists are not sure why this behavior arises, but a new study has revealed the factors that motivate it.

Zoologists have observed feeding behavior in a number of species such as hamsters, housewives, wolf spiders and many other fish. But all of these species still take care of young animals that are not eaten by them.

What do they do for it, are there evolutionary benefits here? Scientists still do not have the correct answer.

Spending the house also sometimes eats their children.(Photo: Audubon)

Previous buildings focused on the idea that parents can eat their eggs because it is a good source of food for famine. However, when adding food to some fish, the results still confuse scientists: some species continue to eat their meat, while others stop.

"It's not just about making food easy," said Hope Klug, a University of Florida graduate student. To test other motivations, Klug and his colleagues modeled different scenarios of "real organisms" with computers, where animals just took care of them, but still ate them when possible.

They found that there are several factors that promote this behavior. In some cases, eating your own child creates the same evolutionary pressure on the eggs as when their enemies will do: the bigger the egg is, the faster the chance of survival .

In addition, eating behavior also increases the parents' reproductive rate, although Klug is not sure why this happens. It may also be a way to get rid of very young juveniles that are too slow and thus save the care of parents. After all, eating eggs for extra energy is also observed. However, no cause is completely responsible for promoting animals to eat.

"You cannot explain the carnivorous behavior of all species with just one reason , " Klug explained.

Thuan An