15 Animals that Murder Their Own Kind

15 Animals that Murder Their Own Kind
When it comes to accepting your own, humans are not the only creatures on the planet who can behave aggressively. Animals have their share of conflicts between their own species. Have you ever seen a lion kill its own cubs? What about a hummingbird? If you want to see some “heavy-duty” family disputes in the animal world, sit tight, as we countdown 15 animals that murder their own kind

Babirusa Pig

Babirusas aren't your typical pigs. Babirusas have barrel-shaped bodies balanced on delicate,deer-like legs and are found in the wetlands and rainforests of Indonesian islands. The bare body and huge, curved tusks of the most well-known babirusa species set it apart. Babirusas' noses are missing the rostral bone, which is a digging tool employed by other wild pigs. As a result, they prefer soft, muddy, or sandy soils where they can feed on roots. Babirusas have been observed eating on the young of their own species or other mammals, indicating cannibalism.

The canines of a male babirusa are an evolutionary puzzle: they never stop growing, are too delicate to hunt or forage with, and eventually, twist and penetrate the animal's own skull! These deer-pigs don’t need to kill their own kind, because their tusks will kill them before they do if the babirusa doesn’t grind the tusks against a hard surface on a regular basis. Failure to do so means the tusks will keep growing, eventually causing the demise of the homely-looking creature.

Meerkats

To secure food and free nannies for her own young, the lead female in a meerkat society kills and even eats pups born to other mothers. This is something they frequently do to keep their reign going. In our first clip, a scuffle takes place between a few meerkats and unfortunately, one of the meerkats perishes. I guess the other meerkats didn’t consider this meerkat one of the boys. Our next clip shows a “battle royale” between two meerkat clans. It’s quite noticeable that these meerkats don’t like each other and when that’s the case, a clash between opposing clans occurs, leading to many deaths and injuries in the process.

These meerkats look like they are adulating their leader, but make no mistake, they just murdered an African wildcat kitten. This kitten was dating a meerkat, but never asked for permission and when the meerkat clan got wind of this, they decided to take action immediately. It was rumored that the guilty meerkat had gone into hiding after the incident. Finally, as mentioned earlier, it’s imperative the female meerkat raises only one set of offspring, hence making sure other newborns are exterminated.