User:Parsonrl/sandbox

Discussion of Earl Sweatshirt's page: The article needed quite a few citations, at least two paragraphs went without any citations. A lot of the information about his personal relationships and status was given by tweet, whether tweets count as credible citations should be looked into. There also was quite a bit of redundant information, even information stated in the previous paragraph was mentioned in the next. It's unnecessary to restate information if it was given in the same section immediately before, an example is in reference to who was featured on the album Doris. Overall, the page could use quite a bit of work with citations and wording.

Discussion of Animal Suicide Page: I really want to add more about altruism, I feel like that would add a ton of valid citations and benefit the article. The whole article is written poorly, there are a handful of grammar mistakes and wording that doesn't fully work. The talk page mentioned a ton of bad citations, I could try to fix up some of these and find a better source with related information to what was originally said. The page would also probably benefit from a purge of material that isn't cited well when I can't find a source given from after 2014.

Citations for the animal suicide page:

• Preti, Antonio. "Do Animals Commit Suicide? Does It Matter?" Crisis, vol. 32, no. 1, 2011 pp. 1-4.
• Batty, Gd, and S. Bell. "Animal Companionship and Risk of Suicide." Epidemiology, vol. 29, no. 4, 2018 pp. E25-E26.
• Ramsden, Edmund, and Duncan Wilson. "The Suicidal Animal: Science and The Nature of Self-Destruction." Past and Present. vol. 224, no. 1, 2014, pp. 201-242, Biography in Context. Animal suicide refers to any kind of self-destructive behavior displayed by various species of animals, resulting in their death. Although contradicting the natural progression of life and an animal's evolutionary instinct for survival, some situations may lead to an animal inducing their own death. Animal self-suicide in the defense of the group could be instantaneous or altruistic self-removal once an animal becomes diseased. There are anecdotal reports of grieving pets displaying such behavior after the death of their owner, or monogamous animals refusing to feed after the death of their mate.

Some parasites manipulate the behavior of their host, causing them to expose themselves to greater risks of predation enabling the parasite to proceed to the next life-cycle stage. Some carpenter ants and termites use autothysis, producing a sticky secretion to trap colony marauders, and pea aphids will sometimes explode, protecting other pea aphids from ladybugs.

Suicidal behavior[edit]

Some species might be driven to engage in suicidal behavior for the sake of others, this is an example of altruism in animals. These actions are performed when the reproductive fitness of others outweighs the reproductive fitness of the individual. There are examples of animals dying in defense of their family or colony, such as the case of pea aphids inducing their own death to protect other aphids. Vervent monkeys will alert others when a predator is near, consequently drawing attention to itself and increasing their likelihood of being attacked.

Many animals that appear to be depressed or grieving begin to exhibit self-destructive behavior sometimes resulting in death. In 1845, the Illustrated London News reported that a Newfoundland dog had been acting less lively over a period of days before being seen "to throw himself in the water and endeavvor to sink by preserving perfect stillness of the legs and feet". Every time he was rescued he attempted to do this again before he finally held his head underwater until death. Other dogs, as well as ducks, have also drowned themselves. One duck did so after the death of its mate. Some dogs will refuse food after the death of their owner until they die as well. Although, the death of mourning animals is likely to be caused by depression leading to starvation or drowning, instead of the intent of suicide. In 2009, 28 cows and bulls mysteriously threw themselves off a cliff in the Swiss Alps over the span of three days.^{[better source needed]} .One deer leapt from a cliff to its death so as to avoid being captured by hunting dogs. Another famous example of animal suicide is the case of the dolphin which most often portrayed Flipper, on the 1960's television show Flipper. According to trainer Richard O' Barry in the film The Cove, Kathy, the dolphin, suffocated herself before him. Suicidal behavior has been observed more in female animals than male and in more vertebrates than invertebrates.

Animal suicide was long used to define human suicide; in the 1800's animal suicide was seen as an act of abuse, madness, love, or loyalty, as in human suicide was seen as. Although it is impossible to determine what drives animals to self-destruction, some specific traits associated with human suicide can be successfully transferred to animals. Scientists have been unable to explain whether animals are able to consciously end their own lives.

Self-destruction[edit]

See also: Autothysis

Some species of social insects will commit suicide in an act of altruism through autothysis, similar to sting autonomy. These insects will sacrifice themselves if the colony is in danger, to alert the colony of danger, or if they become diseased they will sacrifice themselves to prevent the colony from becoming diseased. Carpenter ants and some species of termite will rupture glands and expel a sticky toxic substance thought to be an aliphatic compound in a process called autothysis. Termites will use autothysis to defend their colony, as the ruptured gland produces a sticky harmful secretion that leads to a tar baby effect in defense. When threatened by a ladybug, the pea aphid will explode itself, protecting other aphids and sometimes killing the ladybug. Another example is the Camponotus saundersi, or Malaysian worker ant, which is capable of committing suicide by exploding.

Some social Hymenoptera including bees, wasps, and ants, may use their stinger to deliver poisonous chemicals to their attacker, effectively killing both the predator and the insect in colony defense. This self-destructive and often altruistic defense is known as sting autonomy. The stinger is easily torn from the animal's body, allowing the hazardous stinger to be left stuck in the predator.

Suicide-inducing parasitism[edit]

Certain types of parasites will cause their hosts to commit suicidal behavior, through altering how the intermediate host acts. The change in the host's actions often benefit the parasite's search for a final host. A main example is the phylum Acanthocephala, which will direct its host to a predator so as to be eaten by the predator, their new definitive host. The parasitic worm Spinochordodes tellinii will develop in grasshoppers and crickets until it is grown, at which time it will cause its host to leap into water to its death so that the worm can reproduce in water. However, S. tellinii only causes its host to drown when the host is already close to water as opposed to seeking it out over large distances.

Infection with Toxoplasma gondii has been shown to alter the behavior of mice and rats in ways thought to increase the rodents’ chances of being preyed upon by cats. Infected rodents show a reduction in their innate aversion to cat odors; while uninfected mice and rats will generally avoid areas marked with cat urine or with cat body odor, this avoidance is reduced or eliminated in infected animals. Moreover, some evidence suggests this loss of aversion may be specific to feline odors: when given a choice between two predator odors (cat or mink), infected rodents show a significantly stronger preference to cat odors than do uninfected controls.

Suicide induction in intermediate hosts has been shown to help disperse the parasites to their final hosts. The intermediate host of Parvatrema affinis is the bivalve mollusc, Macoma balthica. The clam feed when in the sublittoral and tidal flat muds, and usually leave no conspicuous marks in the mud that could indicate their presence. However, infected clams are concentrated in the higher parts of the tidal flats, closer to shore, and leave conspicuous zig-zag markings in the sand. Visual and tactile cues have shown to be used by oyster catchers and other shore birds, the definitive hosts of the parasite.

Misconceptions[edit]

A popular misconception is that the lemming will commit mass suicide during migration. This misconception was first popularized by media in the 1960s, such as a mention in the Cyril M. Kornbluth short story "The Marching Morons" in 1951 and the 1955 comic "The Lemming with the Locket", inspired by a 1953 American Mercury article. Perhaps one of the most influential factors in this misconception was the Academy Award-winning Disney film White Wilderness, which showed staged footage of lemmings jumping off a cliff during migration.

There are a ton of anecdotal accounts of animal suicide, but no studies or research on the matter. This leads me to believe that this article might just be a lost cause, unless other pieces of substance are added.