Eat the Kids First

I totally stole everything in this post but I left links and don't claim it as my own.



I've always wondered if maybe I should have been born one of those animals that eat their young. When I saw this licence plate I got thinking about what kind of animals eat their young and wondered why they do it. I think, if I were to eat my young, I'd do it just for an hour of peace and quiet. Of course, that brings up a whole nother topic about making long term solutions to short term problems.

So, I googled "animals who eat their young" and I found this article on FOXnews. Here's the link, if you want but I don't see why you would, or here is an excerpt.

Previous studies have focused on the idea that parents might be eating their own eggs because they get an energy benefit from it and might be using it as a source of food when other sources were scarce.

But studies of some fish that had their diets supplemented by researchers came back with mixed results: While some stopped eating their offspring, others didn't.

"It's not just about getting an easy meal," Klug said.

It's not?

They found that several factors contributed to parents developing a taste for their own offspring.

In some cases, cannibalizing their own young puts the same evolutionary pressure on the eggs that a predator would: the faster the eggs develop, the greater their chances of survival.

So, if my kids acted more grown up, I wouldn't want to eat them. See? It's science.