Meerkat clans perform a 'war dance' to frighten opponents and protect their territory, according to a new UCL and University of Cambridge study.
Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, this is the first empirical study to reveal intergroup aggression.
[...] The study reveals that in more than half of interactions (64.7%) meerkat clans' exhibit aggression by either chasing or doing a 'war dance', where a meerkat displays an erect tail and puffed-out fur, possibly to make the group appear larger than its size.
[...] Dr. Dyble concluded: "If we want to fully understand violence in human societies, we need to understand its evolutionary roots. This requires us to understand why other animal groups fight, and what do they gain or lose from doing so. We show that although aggression only occasionally results in an individual being killed, winning fights with neighbouring groups is critical to maintaining a territory. In the harsh semi-desert of the Kalahari, a good quality territory is critical to a group's survival and long-term success."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @12:00PM (5 children)
"evolutionary roots"
And they had to include evolution into this. They will tell you you converted from an ant to what you are today and at one time you were a single-celled bacteria but somehow developed arms and legs and heart and very sophisticated eyes and everything else. Expose these deceivers and master of lies. Being consciously aware of when you are being manipulated by these chosen rats will give you power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @12:08PM (3 children)
They will say that you had a common ancestor with the ant, not that you converted from one.
Accept the jeebus into your heart and you can ignore that you had fish and ape ancestors.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @12:22PM (2 children)
You don't have to pay attention to the propaganda. Just because someone is screaming something does not mean it is worth your time or anyone else's. Theories can be made by someone with an agenda. Also strangely, evolutionary theory is not being called a conspiracy theory. Tells you who may be behind it all. Someone wants to keep you asleep to the truth.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @02:15PM
Do you have an alternative theory that explains the patterns we see in biology as well as evolution?
For instance, can your theory explain why whales have rear leg bones, despite having no rear legs? If you happen to be an IDer, that design doesn't sound very intelligent. On the other hand, if you consider that whales might be hippos (at least cousins to hippos) that gave up the land, the fact that they still have some leg bones doesn't seem nearly so odd.
As a programmer, I heard it put this way, which makes sense to me. If you were saddled with the job of creating a system with nearly infinite diversity, would you start designing everything, or would you design a system that would do the work for you.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday December 21 2019, @03:27PM
Well, what's strange about that? There's massive evidence life was created that way, no matter who is ultimately responsible for creating life. And nobody has been hiding the methods of creation. Surely, it is blasphemy to decide for God or whoever how he did something without even the courtesy of consulting his work on the subject - reality.
Or perhaps God has lied to us and planted fake evidence to fool the wicked, "energian planes" style. One does wonder what sort of god would be the greatest deceiver of all? Last I checked, Satan covered that in the Christian churches.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday December 20 2019, @01:38PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Friday December 20 2019, @12:32PM
trees on welfare, moongel, corals receiving moon signals, meercat war dance....2019
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 20 2019, @02:42PM
Unlike animals man has figured out how to limit fertility so as not to overrun a territory and come into conflict with neighboring groups
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 20 2019, @04:52PM
It sounds a lot like East Los Angeles, or maybe South Chicago.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.