Inter-species conflict

[ShakeZula06]

I was thinking a little bit about war and conflict and it occured to me that humans are aggressive towards there own much more often then other species are towards there own. When I say it occured to me, I don't mean I know it, but I would assume that in general there isn't much war and conflict within most other species (with exceptions of course, don't red ants and black ants fight a lot? Also, some animals tend to be very territorial even towards their own kind), right?

What reasons could there be for this?

[arahant]

Pretty sure that's just untrue. Most animals are territorial, and will fight and kill each other to defend this territory. The more animals form into groups, the more this behavior becomes group behavior rather than individual. Certain species of monkees are certainly quite brutal tribalists. The only difference with humans is that we've developed the means to associate in extremely large groups, making wars that much more devastating.

[valenzuela]

A dog isnt going to bang the girl I like.

[arahant]

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A dog isnt going to bang the girl I like.

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He meant 'intra-species'.
But we'll still need a pic to see if that's true or not.

[gull]

More aggressive toward humans than other species???

Ever...
Eaten a hamburger?
Gone to a zoo?
Gone hunting?
Lived in a house?

[MelchyBeau]

watch meerkat manor.

They actually have battles constantly, and given the opportunity they will kill a rival clans pups

[ShakeZula06]

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A dog isnt going to bang the girl I like.

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He meant 'intra-species'.


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Yeah my bad, messed that up and I worded it pretty bad.
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More aggressive toward humans than other species are towards themselves ???

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Sorry, messed that part up. Obviously humans are pretty unkind to other species.
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watch meerkat manor.

They actually have battles constantly, and given the opportunity they will kill a rival clans pups


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Thanks for the suggestion. Guess I jumped the gun on this one.

[hmkpoker]

I have to disagree with you here. Animals display the same tendencies we do; they love/protect their genes, and favor their tribe over others'. Doesn't take long to see two males of the same species killing each other on the Discovery Channel.

I see three reasons why you might be misled though. First, non-human mammalian populations (to which we often compare humans) are much smaller than human populations. These groups tend to be much more isolated and incestuous than humans do, so there are fewer same-species animals of opposing tribes. Violence is thus more likely to be directed toward opposing species.

Second, humans are the only mammals intelligent enough to actually have a war. Animals are simply not mentally capable of constructing strategic, cooperative attacks on rivals outside of a rudimentary tit-for-tat behavioral conditioning, so violent conflict tends to be much more individualized. When you see two members of the same species fighting each other, that's the war instinct without the know-how.

Thirdly, humans are definately more violent towards humans they percieve to be of a different type than those they percieve to be of the same type. The evolutionary advantage to this is obvious, but there are some ugly disadvantages as well (namely racism). While "race" may not have a scientifically functional meaning, human beings can identify it rather easily and universally, and don't really care. Racism is a naturally default position, especially apparent in isolated groups (who have tendencies to have strong pride in their clan, and strong hatred towards others). While this trend declines with civilization, it's been very apparent (and still is) throughout history.

[hmkpoker]

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Sorry, messed that part up. Obviously humans are pretty unkind to other species.

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The only reason we don't declare hate-feuled patriotic wars on other species is because we don't have to. They're too easy to kill. But for the most part, our interactions with other animals take place in the form of enslaving them in labor/death camps [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[madnak]

Humans are no more violent toward their own than other species, but it may seem like that because we have the unique ability to organize widespread destruction.