Cowbirds aren’t the only anthropomorally dastardly players in my compositing menagerie. Blue jays are known to eat the eggs and babies of other birds. On rare occasions they will also eat adult song birds. Researchers claim that the eating of other birds, baby and adult is very rare (about 1% of their diet). Anecdotal evidence suggests that many birders think it’s not so rare. See the very graphic home video of a jay eating a bird, posted on Treehuggers and the comments that are below that video. The associated videos that appear after that video demonstrate the omnivorous and combative nature of blue jays. (Or you can just search on YouTube.)
Oddly, while opinion is divided on blue jays, people are almost unanimous in despising cowbirds even though they don’t eat meat (they are brood parasites). It’s probably because cowbirds are considered sneaks and cheaters while jays are “merely” bloodthirsty. In any event, as with cowbirds, I think it’s ridiculous to apply human moral standards to creatures incapable of choosing to do otherwise.
And I see that I got the white balance wrong in the RAW conversion of that first picture. *sigh*
I am going stark raving nuts with these bird files — I’m only 2/3 of the way through the conversions and it seems like I’ve been doing them forever.
-Julie
It’s interesting that we find it “anthropomorally” (great word!) troubling for birds to eat birds, but not for mammals to eat mammals.
Comment by Felix Grant — May 29, 2009 @ 7:35 am
Could it be that the predator and prey are in this case morphologically quite similar (unlike, say, lion and gazelle) so there’s an edge of cannibalism? Compare the similar “anthropomorality” issue of chimpanzees eating monkeys.
Comment by Ray Girvan — May 29, 2009 @ 9:05 am
Possibly. Though I’m not sure how the comparison would be measured … are a starling and a wren more or less morphologically similar than a lion and a gazelle? Interesting in its own right … I shall go away and ponder!
I did consider the cannibalism thing (see) but thought it not applicable; now, rethinking, perhaps I was wrong. Lion and gazelle are both closer to ourselves than starling and wren, so perhaps a given degree of morphological difference counts for more?
Comment by Felix Grant — May 29, 2009 @ 9:22 am
It’s perfectly okay for hawks and eagles to eat other birds. It’s okay for buzzards to eat anything at all (admittedly they don’t do the killing).
It’s okay in some cultures to eat dogs and horses; in most it’s not. Bush-meat seems close to cannibilism to me, but not to some. On the other hand, I’m not sure what I would think if a gorilla were to eat a human.
To be repulsive, it seems one must both kill and eat the other critter. The closer together killing/eating are, the more repulsive. For example, in Ray’s linked Gömböc Festival, the photo sequence of the live wooly pigs followed by the beheaded wooly pigs and then the eating of said pigs was a bit disturbing.
Comment by unrealnature — May 29, 2009 @ 12:15 pm
Not quite on the same subject, but more about how we feel about eating other things, there is David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster. In particular, this bit from page 5 of the linked version:
Comment by unrealnature — May 29, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
The taboo against cannabalism is even stronger than incest. I suspect the incest taboo comes from the fact that close relatives have a an increased chance of having similar recessive genetic mutations. Cannabalism doesn’t have that risk. There is a risk if you eat your relative’s brains though, as they used to in Papua New Guinea, of contracting a prion disease. But that had to be exceedingly rare. The only thing that I can come up with for a taboo against cannabalism is that humans have self selected for social behavior and cooperation (sometimes you would never know it). It wouldn’t do for Alley Oop to be chowing down on his buddies. Of course, maybe that’s where the Neanderthal Man went. Different branch on the genetic tree and all.
Once I mistook the title of a book in the bookstore. I thought it said “Donner Party Cookbook.” Actually, of course, it was “Dinner Party.”
Comment by Dr. C. — May 29, 2009 @ 2:59 pm
Cannibalism does also bring with it the risk of recycling parasites?
Comment by Felix Grant — May 29, 2009 @ 6:47 pm
Text of the “Donner Party Cookbook” >>> “Run!”
I’ve also heard that war promotes “self select[ion] for social behavior,”. As in, getting people to side with you so you can beat the hell out of those who don’t.
Comment by unrealnature — May 29, 2009 @ 8:05 pm
“Cannibalism does also bring with it the risk of recycling parasites?”
Only if its tartare…
Once when W.C.Fields was asked how he liked children and he answered: “Parboiled.”
Comment by Dr. C. — May 29, 2009 @ 9:44 pm