Do Male Raccoons Eat their Babies- But why?
Do male raccoons eat their babies? Do they want to kill young babies? If yes! Then why? why do they want to kill young babies?
It is a noticeable thing and puts people in deep thinking that; how is it possible? And what is the logic behind this cruel act?
If you want to know the answers to your queries about raccoon behavior: then You are on the right web page.
This article is going to be very interesting because it contains thoroughly researched-based and authentic information. So let’s come to read…
Do male raccoon eat their babies?
No, Male Raccoons don’t eat their own babies!
But it is a noticeable thing and creates a lot of suspense that Raccoons kill and eats the babies of other male raccoons and they don’t ever hurt their own babies.
- The male raccoon is called boar
- A Female raccoon is called a sow.
- The babies are called Kits
why do male raccoons eat their babies?
I want to inform you; why male raccoons eat the babies of other male raccoons and what is the logic behind this cruel act of killing others baby raccoons. So let me tell you, Animals show different types of behaviors. There is a different reason behind different behaviors; lets we talk about the behavior of killing a member of the same species. The raccoons show infanticide behavior.
The process of the intentional killing of infants or offspring is called infanticide.
- About 0.3 percent of mammals are died due to the killing of members of the same species.
- The rate of killing is about 2 percent for primates. The raccoons are also considered primates because they have highly developed skills in paw use.
Raccoons show this behavior of infanticide. The male raccoon attempt on the young ones fathered by another male raccoon. The female mother tries to rescue their kits, but being weak she fails to keep her kits secure from the boar. Basically, male raccoons participate in the cruel act of infanticide and kill babies. Now the question arises; why do boars participate in the practice of infanticide? So let’s talk about it.
Why do boar raccoons kill the Kits?
The male raccoon displays the act of sexual dominance and therefore they kill the kit(set of babies). They want to mate with the mothers of kits. As the kit dies the female mother goes into a heat period. As the heat period starts the sow becomes able to mate with a boar. The male raccoon knows this fact very well and ever tries to find out and kill the babies belonging to other father raccoons.
- Heat period is the duration of time when “a female raccoon becomes able to mate for the “production of the new generation”.
“ Reproductive strategy” is the reason for infanticide:
The main reason behind infanticide is a reproductive strategy. Male raccoons want to mate with more than female raccoons. So they kill the babies of the sow and make them available to mate. By this act, they maintain genetic/sexual dominance because they want to pass more and more genes to the next generations.
What is the benefit of infanticide/killing of kits?
Nature has its own rules and regulations to beautify and maintenance of balance between each and everything. If the member of a population increases; great competition for prospective mates, food, water, shelter, and territory increases. It causes unimaginable resource problems; because resources are short.
- If the population increases geometrically, but at the same time, resources cannot increase with the increased demands.
- As a result, the survival of each member of the specie will become difficult.
So, the benefit of killing kits is that each member of the specie gets an equal amount of resources; necessary to maintain life. However, nature maintains a balance between the population and resources.
Do male raccoons protect their own kits?
No, they usually do not!
Male raccoons don’t take care of their own babies. As the nesting season is over, the male raccoons also move out. Fantastically, they don’t kill their own babies. However, the raccoons kill and eat the babies fathered by other male raccoons.
The female raccoons live with the kits and protect them completely till they become mature. Normally, it takes nine months to get mature into a baby raccoon. The mother raccoon takes the responsibility of hiding them. she also fights with the predators and avoids boar raccoons in the aspect of babies’ safety.
Conclusion:
It is concluded from the above-detailed article:
Male Raccoons(boar) never kill their own young( kits). However, they kill and eat the babies fathered by other male raccoons. Now you’re thinking why they do this cruel act: they do this just for the display of sexual dominance.
The male raccoon wants to mate with more than one female. So the boar kill the babies to bring the female into a heat period. As the heat period starts the female becomes able to mate. Through this process, they transfer more and more genes to the next generations.
The male raccoons do even not take care of their own babies. However, the mother raccoon takes up the responsibility of baby care and hides them in a safe area. She fights with the predators, and avoids other boar raccoons.
FAQs:
The male raccoons do not care about the babies. As the nesting period is over; the male raccoons also move out. They have no role in the cub-rearing. The male raccoons never hurt their own babies. However, they eat and kill the babies belonging to other male raccoons.
No, male raccoons don’t eat their own babies. However, they kill and eat the babies fathered by other male raccoons. They do this just for the display of sexual dominance. They want to transfer more and more genes to the next generations. After killing the babies the male raccoons(roar) mate with the mother raccoons.
The female raccoon is called “Sow”. The male raccoon is called “Boar”. The babies of raccoons are called “kits” (sets of babies)
The male raccoons don’t stay with their families. As the nesting period is over, the male raccoons move out to live alone elsewhere. Instead, to live with his family, he wants to mate with other females. The male raccoons are not possessive about their babies. All the responsibility of babies care up is on only mother raccoon.
The mother raccoons protect her babies in a better way:
1. Mother raccoons hide them(kits) in a protected area.
2. She fights with the predators for her babies
3. She avoids the boar raccoons in the breeding season and focus on raising her babies.
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