The behavior of eating its own offspring Animal cannibalism: Is it terrible or natural behavior?

Animal cannibalism can be seen in some animals. Some of the animals in the world are eating their own offspring. (Bears, Cats, Some dog breeds, Fish etc.). However, there are different reasons for this behavior.

Animal cannibalism behavior in dogs is very rare

Animal cannibalism behavior in dogs (eating their own offspring) is rare. However, it has been reported that it is seen in some. It was reported that this ratio was 1/100 in the “Sivas kangal” dog, which is a breed of purebred dog.

Sivas kangal growers applied for scientific research on the cause of this situation.Cumhuriyet and Ankara University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine faculty members conducted a scientific research. Dr. Lecturer. Member Mustafa Koçkaya, Assoc. Dr. Nazlı Ercan and Assoc. Dr. Yasemin Sargırlı Demirbaş revealed the reason for this with a scientific study that was first introduced to world.

As a result of this scientific research, it was determined that one of every 100 Kangal dogs ate their offsprings, it was found out that this behavior was caused by hormone deficiency.

 Maternal Animal cannibalism: the behavior of mothers to eat their offspring. In this study, some Kangal dogs have eaten all 10 day pups. Par

Our study took 5 years because there was a survey process. We thought that the mothers were doing this in order to maintain the purity of the Kangal dogs. So our process has been prolonged.

We were faced with an unknown situation. Also there was no one in the world working in this field. But after our research, we saw that it appeared in many dog breeds.

A camera was placed in the dogs’ huts to observe their behavior. It was seen that the mother dogs displayed behaviors towards anxiety. Mother Dogs initially licked their offspring,biting them then they were eating their own offspring completely.

Find about more interesting facts about behaviors of other species from here.