Surplus Killings — a Troublesome Behavior of Cats
Oh God! No! Not again! No no no…
How could you!?
This is the fifth time this week that you brought me a dead baby bunny.
Don’t look at me with those big eyes as if you were innocent. I know it was you!
Yes, okay, I understand. It’s in your nature. You’re a carnivorous predator, regardless of how cute you look. You can’t help yourself. It’s instinctive. Still, all this wanton killing is disturbing. You could at least eat your prey!
Sigh.
Well, at least you didn’t decapitate this one:
Nature is cruel
Nature is cruel. I know that. Predators will hunt and prey will be killed. My father used to say that humans are the only animals that kill for reasons other than survival. But it’s not true. Animals kill for many reasons and survival is just one of them.
As I recently learned, senseless mass killings are happening in nature all the time. They’re called surplus killings. Here are a few examples:
- On Middle Island, near the Australian coast, a single fox massacred…
