Nature & Environment

What is the world's most murderous mammal ?

By T.K. Randall
October 2, 2016 ·  31 comments

Meerkats aren't quite as innocent as they might seem. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 Charlesjsharp The very concept of murder might seem like an innately human act, but despite our notorious penchant for annihilating one another, murder is certainly not exclusive to the human race.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature, a team of Spanish biologists and geneticists compared the murder rates of 1,024 different types of mammals.The worst of them all, it turned out, was the humble meerkat - a species that, despite its cute appearance, is so extraordinarily vicious that 1 in 5 of them will end up being murdered.

The reason for this is that meerkat society is rigidly hierarchical to the extent that pregnant females will typically kill their subordinate's offspring in order to make room for their own babies in the clan.

Here are the 30 mammal species most likely to kill their own kind. #1 might surprise you. https://t.co/qdprrwBjvl pic.twitter.com/vB0e6NjdbZ

— Ed Yong (@edyong209) September 28, 2016

The study found that monkeys, lemurs and sea lions were also high up on the list while humans actually came quite far down and didn't even make the top 30.

Source: Washington Post | Comments (31)

Tags: Mammals