Most spiders.
This is actually only part true. During the night, as the temperature in their environment drops, most species leave their den or web and seek out the mouth of any nearby sleeping mammals to sleep in, as it will help retain heat. In tests, it has been observed that up to thousands or tens of thousands of spiders will travel up to 10 miles to willingly climb into the open mouth of a sleeping human.
That tens of thousands number is always brought up, but it’s an average that is affected by the actions of Spiders Georg, an outlier who should not be counted.
Thank you for the reminder I need to get a new supply of duct tape.
And that’s why you swallow eight spiders a night or whatever it was. Mmm, protein
The only thing spiders like more than a warm mouth is a warm butthole. The human butthole is the perfect environment for a spider to get nice and cozy. It’s estimated that the average person has 10 spiders enter their butthole every year (and on average 9.95 exit).
Mantises live solitary lives, and are cannibalistic. I assume it’s more out of indifference than hate, but it’s close to what you’re looking for.
They are so cannibalistic. I once hatched an egg case in a terrarium and they ate their brothers and sisters almost immediately after hatching. There were baby crickets in there and they did not care for them in the slightest as the mantid population fell like a cobalt state sanctioned murder cube falls on a head.
Oh wow, I totally read the parent comment as ‘manatees’, and was like, “Odd, never heard of that, but okay.”
…
Then a dash of, “Holy shit, how’s this guy keeping manatees in a terrarium?”
I am a fan of large aquaria, but hatching a cannibalistic manatee egg case in one sounds like a terrible way to become the guy in the math problem with a cart full of X cabbages and Y heads of lettuce if I bought an equal amount of each and spent $154.26 with an 8% tax if cabbages cost $2.23 and lettuce cost $3.98.
I traveled to the largest land-based marine aquarium in the western hemisphere - 6 million gallons - and saw whale sharks.
how’s this guy keeping manatees in a terrarium?”
Rich people are weird.
The crickets aren’t competition for the crickets.
I would live like that. If someone says hi we fight and the strongest eat the weakest. It’s only fair
Can we stop equating introversion with anti-social?
My kids have a book called “solitary animals,” explicitly framed as introverts in nature, and from what I remember of it, it mentions pumas, octopuses, sloths, and eagles.
I’m sorry but the correct plural is octopedants.
Weird, I really figured the plural was sloths, but you learn something every day.
No, that’s what you call people who correct people who use the wrong plural for octopus
Ohhh nice one
Octopi are mostly solitary I think.
Possibly the one thing that is preventing them from creating culture/civilisation with how smart they are. Maybe they’ll get their shit together when we’re gone. Planet of the apes is too played out.
There’s that, and also their short lifespan (1 to 5 years). And the fact that the mother only cares for their offspring while they’re in eggs.
Forms of transmission of behaviors by imitation or communication mostly emerge in species that care for their young, like birds or mammals, because the young learns from their parents, which complements instinct. It gets stronger when they’re a social species, because they also learn from every other individual. That’s when culture begins to emerge (like how some “accents” or “dialects” can be identified in the songs of birds or whales of a same species). But a specie that isn’t social and doesn’t care for it’s young, whatever an individual learnt in its lifetime dies with it, behaviors can only be transmitted genetically edit: inexact, see below , so they’re slower to evolve.
[EDIT : I looked up some things online to make sure I wasn’t spreading disinformation (should’ve been the other way around, sorry…) and it seems some nuance needs to be added to two things;
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Despite being usually asocial and sometimes confrontational, octopuses can occasionally display social behaviors such as signal, so they’re not devoid of inter-individual communication source
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They seem to be able to learn from each-other to a certain extent. Source
I still think my point mostly stands, but it’s a bit shakier than I thought.]
I agree with the point you’re making. I’d just like to note that the mother doesn’t care for her children because she dies taking care of the eggs. The eggs get attached to a ceiling of an underwater cave, and the mother watches the eggs until she dies of starvation. It is theorized that this happens to prevent the mother from eating her children.
That is absolutely fucking metal. TIL.
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First they need to develop a language that allows them to transcend time.
The second Children of Stuff- I think it’s Children of Ruin- talks about far-future octopod civilization. Interesting stuff. The whole trilogy is super good and I recommend it.
Nah raccoons will take our place when humanity wipes itself out.
Randy.
Randy is (was? Not sure if he’s still alive) a goat on a friend’s farm. Fucker hated everyone and everything and would have to be kept in his own area. Did you know goats can spit? I didn’t until I met Randy. Friend told me Randy killed a cat once. Not sure why they didn’t just turn him into dinner.
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I feel weird explaining this, but male goats are not used for cheese.
Not with that attitude
I mean, if we’re being pedantic, traditional cheese did/does use male goats to make baby goats and get milk. We just generally artificially force pregnancy instead.
I think snow leopards only ever meet up if they’re dtf. Otherwise they keep large swaths of land to try and guard against any others stepping near their space. Like, hundreds of acres.
Ditto with red pandas
… I honestly have issues imagining what an aggressive red panda looks like.
I have no doubt that it exists, nature is fuckin scary, my brain just can’t deal with that.
Polar bears except when mating, and even then they still hate any offspring that aren’t their own. Most big cats like tigers, panthers, and jaguars. Tons of predators are solitary.
Tons of animals that are solitary should fit the criteria. Hates might not be a completely accurate description, but if they are solitary and territorial then it would be close enough.
I swear I’m not a besserwisser but I recently learned something I found annoyingly interesting and I’m sharing it hoping you will too:
Panthers aren’t a species but usually either a jaguar or leopard if black or a collective name for all large cats belonging to the Pantera family.
I was going to put in mountain lion and figured someone would go “lions hunt in packs!” and tried to use an alternate name. Forgot panther is also used for jaguars!
People call Cougars “Panthers” also, but they’re not Pantera family.
Based on rigorous scientific research conducted on my deck, chipmunks do not like other chipmunks, but in a really adorable way.
The movies lied to you.
Do I count?
You count the most, using your fingers and toes.
Most every animal species? Fun fact, they nearly all, at an individual level, die very quickly.
Sorry to say that as a human, you’re hard wired to engage with nearly every being on this planet as though it is sentient and beloved, because we’re a bunch of dumbasses.
Neat, you posted a Wikipedia article about how animals will at times associate with one another.
Yep.
Most animal species are social, only a minority are solitary. And definitely most animals are social, as prosocial species have vastly larger populations that solitary ones.
And now you won’t be able to stand behind your claim of “most every animal species live their lives in solitude”.
You are right we’re somewhat hardwired to engage other animals, especially mammals, but not because we’re “dumbasses”, but because humans are an eusocial species and puppies look like babies, because they are (a lot of mammal offspring share similar qualities such as the head and especially eyes being disproportionately large compared to the body.)
But yeah, youre definitely wrong about most animal species being solitary. Simply not true.
my.dude
Incels?
I’m kidding. Mostly.
Orangutans are solitary for most of their lives
Betta fish - just make sure to give them a few gallons of water in which to swim, a filter for their poo and a heater in their tank to keep them comfortable year round.
It’s mostly only the males that don’t get along with each other. Given enough space, females can be peacefully kept together in sorority tanks. Similarly, a trio or harem (i.e. one male with multiple females) is typically safe as well and the fish get along just fine, given a large enough tank and appropriate stocking.
Also, most reputable breeders and sources of information will tell you that 5 gallons / 19 liters is the minimum suggested tank size for a happy and healthy fish in optimal conditions. While they can certainly survive in much smaller bodies of water, it’s not ideal and in some cases it’s actually harmful.
Sure but females wants a strong male, and strong (animal) males fight other males.
If you would have only females, the entire fish species dies out. Nature needs strong fighters to protect things.
Just thought I’d mention that there are species of fish and other animal groups that are all female or close enough to it that their populations do not rely on males to propagate. For example, Amazon mollies. I couldn’t tell you if any species of betta are capable of parthenogensis, but as a general statement “If you would have only females, the entire fish species dies out” isn’t universally true.
Although it’s possible that female bettas want strong males, I’m certainly not a female betta and don’t want to get too far into the territory of anthropomorhpism and there are certainly other possible motivations and processes going on than simply wanting “strong males”.
But really, all this seems to be veering oddly away from the original topic and my first comment, so I’m just going to leave it at that.
Of course. Never intended my comment to be a book on the subject. :)
Sexual selection is different than what is “needed” by a species. Males who are able to fight off others and therefore are the exclusive mates of a large group of females will propagate the genes that reinforce their physical prowess and aggressive behavior.
This also benefits the females if they will have sons who are more likely to win their own harems.
But there are also competing strategies. Sneaky males who can mate with another male’s group without fighting him off will also propagate their genes. Females in the group benefit if they will have sneaky male offspring who will be similarly successful.
“Strong” is not the default for “most likely to have offspring.” There are many strategies, including monogamous species which invest together in their offspring. Evolutionary psychology can get oversimplified and misapplied, especially by beta males whose mothers hurt their feelings and now lash out at women whenever they get the chance. That last bit was an attempt at irony, btw.
Yeah that’s true. I was just describing the basics to not have to write that entire thing you just wrote. :)
I can’t read your mind, but it seemed like you might be making a generalization about fish that you might think applies more broadly. But I can’t know that, so if you say you have a more nuanced view but didn’t want to spell it all out, that certainly could be the case.
I mean, yeah, I assume most people don’t say everything they know about a topic. It would be exhausting to listen to.
What you wrote is something I think everyone learns in school also.
