Can animals intentionally commit suicide, or is it always accidental?

[FreyaRed]

I mean conscious decision to kill itself. Not an accidental suicide.

Yes, some animals can think in an abstract way (Bambinism)

No. animals don't have mental capacity for suicide (Animals don't have any consciousness)

Freya you monster stop asking such uncomfortable things, I love my pet and it loves me! (Antrophomisation)

I have no clue I don't come from this planet (Xenomorphism)

Something in between, depending on intelligence level of a species.

[Lliam]

I think some animals are capable of suicide in the literal sense. I don't think they have to be able to conceptualize death. They can simply choose to deliberately end their physical or emotional pain.

Dolphins can choose not to breath.
Dogs can refuse food and water out of grief.
Captive orcas have been known to ram the walls of their enclosures repeatedly
.
I once saw a video of a captive Indian elephant that had been abused and forced to work that finally broke loose and went on a rampage. It very deliberately killed its abuser and then went on to crush cars and terrorize people. I got the definite feeling that it consciously decided to choose suicide over continued suffering. It knew it could not escape. It said "Fuck you, motherfuckers, just kill me." And the police finally gunned it down.

There are probably other examples that humans dismiss as instinct or stupidity, but humans tend to think of themselves as superior. Some humans think that animals operate on pure instinct and refuse to believe that animals have emotions, consciousness or free will.

But what causes a human to seek death? Physical or emotional pain? What does the concept of death have to do with it? They just want to end their suffering.

[Chazmatazz269]

It’s highly unlikely. Most animals struggle to survive.
Even in humans, suicide is really a privileged behavior. Suicide is almost unheard of in impoverished regions. The more privileged the society, the higher the suicide rates.
My personal theory is that animals, including humans, that have to exert themselves in order to merely survive find little or no time to ruminate on their woes. Furthermore, they don’t have spare time and energy to waste feeling sorry for themselves. They do what they must.
Those of us who do more of what we want than what we must seem to find plenty of time to convince ourselves that life is not worth living. It’s one of the curiouser truths of life as we know it.

[Calyptomaniac]

I think it always accidental. Animals rely on instinct. Maybe that results in them dying but they don't consciously decide to go intentionally die. Maybe they panic and go flying off a cliff or straight in the path of a predator but I think even the most intelligent animals don't think on a scale that complex. The closest they probably come is when unable to find food or realize they can't escape a predator is that they accept reality and give up.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

I had a cat who had a terminal illness.

She was very likely in more pain & suffering than we thought.

She'd find a way to go to the street and appear to intentionally get run over by a vehicle.

Every time she went to the street, we'd catch her just in to prevent her from getting run over.

I also suspected that she didn't want me to watch her suffer or didn't want me to feel helpless.

[DeeDeeDeVour]

just in *time

[FreyaRed]

The unpleasant truth is cats aren't smartest animals, considered level 1-2 on self-conscious scale, level 2 are animals which recognize themselves in mirrors, while higher primates and hominids are level 6. Your example shows that even less developed animals are capable to intentional suicide. hmmm?

[Twalli]

Animals act on instinct in part, there is an instinctual need to survive. The lack of desire to live is unique to humans due to our brain power. You can see our instinct to survive by how we attempt to avoid death, and how even when we commit suicide our body's instinct is to do whatever it can to survive. Without the ability to consciously decide not to live, an animal may make stupid decisions that result in death but will not do so with the intent to die. My dog stopped eating because she was digesting what appeared to be a bird and it was uncomfortable. If she hadn't finished digesting it and we had not sought a vet to help her, she may have died, but it wouldn't be intentional.

[Iron_Man]

When I was a kid up in the mountains, we owned a campground a family campground and the copperhead snakes were around the creeks, and the campers reported it so my brother took out his rifle and was shooting the snake and some of the wounded snakes were biting themselves trying to commit suicide because they’re poisonous that was weird

[FreyaRed]

This could be some pre-programed action, not a conscious decision. Some insects do this as well but I don't think snakes or insects have any kind of self-perception.

[Iron_Man]

Well, I was a child and I witnessed it. I don’t know what they were thinking, but that’s what the other people were saying around me suicide but eventually they just slid underneath the rocks.

[Levin]

Hmm, there was an interesting study. Apparently rats were placed in a barrel of water and then it was seen how long they would swim before they drown. Initially it was 15 minutes. Then the researchers saved the rats. It was then found that the rats, in anticipation of being saved, were able to swim over 24 hours before drowning.

[ohsheeT]

This is a really good question that I wish I knew the answer to animals are so intelligent it is unreal their senses alone are better than ours but I can't answer this because I don't truly know but if they can if they do do that it's sad and that makes me curious and wants to know the reason why

[Ill_made_Knight]

dunno that I would call it suicide per se, but there are certainly animals that have been known to stop eating or caring for themselves after losing a mate, marine mammals that beach themselves. Certainly sounds like depression.
We see tool use in apes and corvids certainly. There is more to animals than many people will admit

[Kaneki05]

Very much depends on what animal, also quick reminder humans are animals... so thus already proving this. But if you go into a debate of free will, and the fact we do things before we understand we're going to... do we really? But for the simple answer yes.

[purplepoppy]

Depression can make them stop eating but I don't think they grasp it will kill them. If anything it's the fit happy healthy ones that tend to top themselves by doing dumb shit when they're over excited. It's not unusual around here for animals to fall off cliffs into the sea but it's always accidental.

[Billlewis]

No. Only human beings have the ability to intentionally kill themselves, and even then, 85% of successful suicides are committed by Caucasian males.

[FreyaRed]

So? it's an evolutionary achievement?

[Billlewis]

In a warped, cruelly ironic way, I suppose it is.

[Kvass]

If they could, there wouldn’t be any goats left in muslim countries.

[FreyaRed]

and sheep

[Wodens_Apprentice]

And no chickens left in Africa. I seen fucked up shit.

[genericname85]

Animals can be depressed and unhappy and animals can sort of understand death (as in seeing a dead body). However I'm not aware of any animal that has a kognitive concept of it's own mortality. In facts even humans don't fully understand that untill they're like 7 years old. So I think actions that lead to end of life may happen for some biological factors but it never has the "intend" of suicide in animals cause they're not aware of their own mortality.

[Cidknee]

Yes, in the sense that their existance would have to become most unpleasant. Great suffering that was unbearable i believe causes one to run off a cliff or swim out and drown. Perhaps even grief over lost loved ones can cause it. But i think any living creature could have the conscious urge to end their life. They are conscious of surviving why not have it all to be complete.

[Cidknee]

I said any but thinking not every perhaps. I voted the last one.

[Anonymous]

No. Unless you count something like stress which would drive them to potentially do something reckless and destructive. But i wouldn't call that suicide. Animals are driven by instinct. Instinct drives you to stay alive.

[FreyaRed]

Some animals, even with smaller brains like birds are capable to recognize pattern in behavior or others, recognize themselves in mirror, use tools and can deceive others. I don't think it's completely instinctive behavior but result of limited strategic thinking.

[OneViewpoint]

Well whales and dolphins appear to beach themselves sometimes. Other than that of running off a cliff most animals don't really have the tools to commit suicide other than a hunger strike.

[Agape93]

Yeah. Some animals will deliberately drown themselves, fall off cliffs or starve themselves when their mate dies

[Nikki1989]

Some animals do die through their own actions, but for evolutionary reasons, not personal intent.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't say so. Remember those strays who are badly treated by inhumane people around. Even when in worst conditions, they don't kill themselves. Also for any agonizing animal.

[AngryCarl3]

The way animals wander into the road can look like suicide, but more likely it's just stupidity.

[Anonymous]

Animals follow their own instinct for everything but i have mostly seen them dying because of disease or seemingly because they run out of the time.

[FrodoSkywalker007]

You know, I'm not sure I've ever heard of an animal doing that 🤔

[Anonymous]

It probably depends on the species, some animals can do it.

[Kelly6]

@freyared yes some animals can

[_Jenny_]

Nope