This is a bit off the beaten track for us here, but this story is so bizarre that it caught my eye and I simply had to share it. It’s one step away from Planet Of The Apes. In an Indian village, a baby monkey was killed by a dog and that got all the other monkeys on a revenge binge.
I checked who the source is, News18, and that is an arm of CNN, which operates in India. Here’s the story and it beats the hell out of me.
Revenge of the Apes: Monkeys in Maha's Beed On a Murderous Rampage After Dogs Kill One of their Infants https://t.co/yW1cQgq3fx
— Ursula Faw (@ursulafaw56) December 18, 2021
Animals are intelligent, no question. They have emotions like we do. But I have never seen a group of animals plot against another group of animals before. That’s the sci fi spin to this that I find so compelling. Maybe evolution is happening more quickly than we know.
Animals communicating (in whatever manner their species communicates) to organize attacks against another animal(s) happens all the time. It is nothing new and goes way the hell back in time. Hell, some species regard certain others as natural enemies. It’s in part how evolution has taken place. Humans have a long history of thinking we are the only species with advanced enough thinking to plan and execute attacks against other animals, but when you look at the natural world minus such a belief it can be surprising just how much intelligence other species have. Including the ability to make and utilize tools, and develop their own social networks. That latter includes dealing with perceived threats. Oh, and one last thing – humans aren’t the only species that will kill just to kill for whatever reason (or none). Other species are sometimes known to indiscriminately kill not just a single other animal but numerous ones up to and including mass slaughter for no discernable reason.