can Animals commit suicide?

Hi Crazy - long ago - somebody told me that there is a mountain somewhere (dont recollect) - each year, several birds of a specific species come and bang themselves against that cliff and die. I wish I had more specific details about it. But I am not sure it is something emotional for them. I believe there might be some refractive index of air because of which they cant really see the cliff clearly and as a consequence they end up hitting the rocky mountain before it is too late. I am kind of realistic - he he. :)

I recall about 6 years ago their was a 3 story animal shelter. The animals would escape to the roof and jump off! It was a horrific thing which eventually closed the shelter. Their was an investigation to see if they were abusing animals , but it was stopped when they closed down. I don't know if it means anything though!

well, i didn't actually see how it happened. but my friend told me once that he had a pet bird. my friend injured his hand infront of his pet. some blood came out from his wound. seemingly, the bird saw the incident. and then the next day, he found his pet bird stuck in the cage's wire with its head twisted. well, he didn't mention any other occasion or reasons before he found his pet. but he thought that it might have been because the bird saw a blood. i wanted to laugh but i didnn't want to embarrass him upfront. i just don't remember any other person mentioning about similar incident.

Parrots tend to pluck their own feathers because of depression. Sometimes dogs bang their heads on the wall when they are nervous and confused and I hate it when I see dogs do that and their masters punish them for it

Yes I think they can. Example would be tarsiers. There are lots of tarsiers in Bohol, a province here in the Philippines. Tourists cannot take home any of these mammals because they easily get stressed and will always try to kill themselves when they are taken away from their home. They do this by bumping their head several times in any hard object.

I believe that birds could do it at a wedding. But sense they band throwing rice at weddings i guess not. But have thought about ferrets they do it all the time crawling into walls and just dieing. Comments By McTasTy mctasty42@yahoo.com

they definitely can. I've heard about dolphins in captivity choosing not to breathe anymore. otherwise perfectly healthy, but living in conditions not stimulating enough for such an intelligent animal. and in such a case simply choosing not to take another breath. humans are animals, and we suffer depression, which is a chemical illness of the brain, I suffer from myself, and why would no other animal species suffer it? of course they can have the same chemical imbalance as we can. and loneliness. a social animal will feel it, perhaps more so than humans do alone. after all, we have things like tv and the internet. but for some animals pack wiring is so strong a part of their identity that loneliness is a barbaric thing to inflict on them. and sadness, well of course. we must never forget that we are animals too. so the things we experience, they experience too. just this very morning, a very stupid TV presenter said that understanding facial expressions was "one of the things that make us uniquely human" but clearly he knew nothing of the animal kingdom , and was trying to find ways to think himself better than other species of animal. after all, anyone that's ever seewe are not unique in communicating through facial expression.n a dog snarling will KNOW that animals, including humans, sometimes choose to die.

I don't think animals are that self aware. I mean, I really don't think they think about killing themselves.

Animals are known to obey their masters or leaders of their packs. And if that's what they have been commanded I think they would kill themselves.