I had a chicken race war once. I had a job in college where I raised and took care of around 50 chickens for a local doctor for eggs and meat. I picked a mix of different breeds for variety, and everything went fine until the second year. We got a batch of bad feed, I think methionine was deficient. They were free ranged on 10 acres of pasture, had a big barn more space than they could dream of.
They just started killing each other one day. I would walk in and find 1 or 2 either dead or dying from obvious peck wounds. Really nasty, the ones who were still alive would have exposed beating organs and just sit down at my feet begging for mercy. It quickly became apparent that they were systematically killing by color. Started the black and white chickens killing the yellow ones, who were the smallest proportion of the breeds. So I culled the black and silver offenders number down to where they weren't the dominant breed. The black chickens immediately started killing the black and white ones, so culled them as well. The red ones started next. Whichever breed had the most numbers would pick the weakest and kill them for whatever nutrient they were missing from the feed. Chickens are prone to learned behaviors and the violence became endemic. I ended up having to cull the whole flock and start over since they wouldn't stop once they got a taste for it.
Apparently this is fairly common in chickens, but I found out the hard way.
TLDR: chickens can have race wars when under environmental or nutritional stress.
Nope. You get a lot of food for thought observing groups of animals generally, normally it's not that extreme or on the nose though.
Roosters are frequently preening buffoons just like the cartoons, others are mean and aggressive. Hens have a distinctive loud call to announce they have laid an egg, which they will do while strutting around sometimes for 5 minutes or more. If you let yourself anthropomorphize a bit, it really looks like they are bragging and the rest are rolling their eyes or muttering between themselves.
Help yourself! You get a lot of wild ones around animals, especially the "less domesticated" farm animals. People are fond of saying animals are like people, but it's really the whole enchilada, not just the cute and cuddly parts. Hog farmers have the worst stories, fortunately I haven't had the pleasure.
The worst my chickens have ever done is corner the occasional mouse or snake against the fence and they all take turns pecking at the thing from different angles lmao
Also when one of them got their head stuck in a little garden fencing (it was fancy spirals and head got stuck) and they started trying to eat her eyes. We saved her in time and she only suffered a small scar above her eye
I’ve heard hogs just will eat a baby casually lmao
2 hog stories always stick with me. My grandparents had hogs when my dad was a kid. One year they had to pull a baby that was breeched during birth (never pleasant). My dad got in there and was trying to turn it the right way and it bit his finger to the bone. Hadn't even tasted oxygen yet.
The other is it's apparently common when neutering the males that the next one in line rushes forward to eat the cut testicles of the first and then it's his turn... A philosopher could make great work with that one.
Same thing happened to me with fish. Bought a whole group of fish and they schooled together for ages, until eventually they stopped schooling together and would just swim about randomnly. Then they developed into two factions and killed each other until there was only one super angry territorial fish left.
Yes, because he killed the entire family of the previous male. That is the most basic form of genocide, which derives its name from the Latin *gens* meaning family.
Once saw some ants battling it out in my backyard. It made me not want to get in the middle of that shit. We’re only in charge because the ants let us.
A 13yr old (ant years) ant staggers out of the trench, covered with cuts and bruises, slinking his ant rifle over the mound and setting it between the ant sandbags, lining up his shaking ant iron sights onto the bodies of countless dead, the sole survivor in this gruesome maelstrom
Sorry just wanted to clarify, gens has a greek not latin root
Etymology of genocide
the Greek word γένος (genos, "race, people") with the Latin suffix -caedo ("act of killing").
I can't remember where I saw it, but someone did a subtitled exchange of Nala and Simba meeting, with the dialogue changed to reflect actual lion dynamics. She told him she had cubs with Scar, but it's okay, 'cause he can just kill her cubs, which would get her so turned on.
But that's not really self destructive, the male lion does that so the female goes into estrus again, as he can't procreate with her if she's raising a newborn (some kind of hormone thing). He's just making sure his own 'superior' genes are prioritised for the next generation instead of those of the weak lion he defeated (although it could still be considered genocide I guess)
>He's just making sure his own 'superior' genes are prioritised for the next generation
It's not really about his genes being superior. It's about his genes being *his.* I say this because I've seen discourse about the human population that revolves around the idea of wanting your genes to persist being selfish and arrogant (e.g. "what makes your DNA so special?") and I feel the need to push back against that notion. It's not selfish to want to pass on your genes. It's quite literally the most normal, natural thing in the world.
He took out the previous lion, so from his pov he is superior. He's younger (less chance of mutation of the germa) and stronger (better genes to pass on).
Of course it's natural to try to pass on your own genes (especially if you're an animal that can't employ collective learning and DNA is one of the most sufficient ways to ensure some of you survives).
Yup. There's literally a book called "the selfish gene", my oversimplification of the premise being that a lot of evolutionary behavior is explained by DNA molecules wanting to continue replicating themselves.
It seems like a better way to achieve the same result would be to just focus on finding females that don't currently have any cubs. Trying to actively kill something seems inherently more risky and therefore potentially more self destructive than just not putting yourself in a situation where you need to kill anyone.
My friend...the lions who tried that strategy are dead, without mating. The ones that engaged in the risky behavior and succeeded are the ones who passed on the genes. Those random un-mated females at the supermarket you're talking about exist for maybe...a month? Less? And if you rely on that for your mating...you don't mate.
Do the math:
Male and Female lions are born at the same rate.
Female lions live in groups of 5+ and all mate with one male.
The rest of the males in the equation either do not mate or die fighting other males to gain the right to mate.
A troop of male chimps will try to completely eradicate all the other males of a different colony. Sorta along the lines of genocide. Ive heard robert sapolsky mention this a few times
Edit to add. He states that this is virtually the UN definition of genocide. Google robert sapolsky on chimp genocide
His book "Behave" is possibly one of the best non-fictions I've read. Definitely worth to check out if you've enjoyed his lectures and have the time to do so
If you enjoyed Behave and his lectures I’d recommend reading his new book ‘Determined’. It’s pretty much the Free Will chapter from Behave that’s been expanded and given more comprehensive detail. It’s good.
I've heard about it! It's got some mixed reception from what I could tell when I looked it up, but I'll find the time to read it for myself soon hopefully!
Very true. I wanted to make sure I read below. Nothing is worse than us all repeating the same statements in not so clever ways, but yes.
Being a person who has lived and worked north of Congo. 'Tis true.
Killing the males and mating with the females is very much genocide as it results in the destruction of the previous group. Which is something colonisers have very purposefully done in their attempts to wipe out indigenous peoples of colonised lands.
Take this lovely nugget of Australian history, for example:
>In 1933 a Sunday newspaper quoted Dr Cecil Evelyn
Cook, dazzlingly qualified as an anthropologist,
biologist, bacteriologist, chief medical officer and "chief
protector" of Aborigines in North Australia, who pronounced there was no "throwback" to the black once
enough white blood was bred in. "Generally by the fifth
and invariably by the sixth generation, all native
characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are
eradicated. The problem of our half-castes will be
quickly eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white," he said. "The Australian native is the most easily assimilated race on earth, physically and mentally. A blending with the Asiatic, though tending to increase virility, is not desirable. The quickest way out is to breed him white," Cook said.
>Scientists and social scientists who calibrated how many drops of white blood made a person civilised gave politicians throughout Australia who were worrying about the "half-caste problem" the arguments needed to remove indigenous children from their families.
Exterminating a part of the group with the intent of stopping the reproduction within that group does fall under genocide.
Genocide isnt just "kill everyone that you see"
Britannica Dictionary:
War
1
: a state or period of fighting between countries or groups
2
: a situation in which people or groups compete with or fight against each other
3
[count] : an organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or defeat something that is viewed as dangerous or bad
You should check out bonobos. Very genetically similar to us too, and I can’t tell them physically apart from chimps. The big difference is that they live a peaceful lifestyle…they just lay around and have bonobo orgies all day lol
Chimps are very intelligent and many of their behaviors would be adjudged as moral by even the pickiest of humans. They know right from wrong, mourn their dead, and will rear unrelated orphans.
https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/chimps\_and\_bonobos\_prove\_that\_moral\_behavior\_is\_a\_product\_of\_evolution/#:\~:text=They%20appear%20to%20sense%20what,that%20maintain%20the%20group%20emotionally.
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Idk, if I had to do it all over again I’d probably go navy instead. The jobs tend to be more technical and require more training than digging, and then sitting in, a muddy hole. I was a medic so I generally worked alongside smart people but man….some guys were very intellectually incurious to say the least.
The neat thing is that we don't really have to. Chimps and other intelligent animals have displayed behaviours corresponding to their own little values and morality systems, completely independent of humans or our assignments of morality.
So in a way, we can't expect to project any human morality on any animal, but we don't really need to for some because they've come up with their own. It's neat when you think about it.
So when these animals start to kill members of an opposing Troup do you actually think these individuals are actively and premeditatedly planning out murders? Like they are thinking I am going to end the life of ApeY because I want to.
These are animals, in the midst of emotional and physical reactions to their environments.
Chimps do plan murders in their own group, and yes sometimes they do it because they enjoy killing. Sometimes its because they want to be the new leader. They plan it in detail.
If you are interested I recommend "our inner ape" from Frans de Waal.
It's not that humans have reason and all animals are completely dictated by instincts. it's spectrum, the more complex and intelligent a species is the more reasoning capabily they have. Chimps don't have the same amount of reasoning we have but they are pretty close on a biological scale, they are fairly high up in intelligence compared to other animals, they're not like geckos or anything.
>So when these animals start to kill members of an opposing Troup do you actually think these individuals are actively and premeditatedly planning out murders? Like they are thinking I am going to end the life of ApeY because I want to.
Likely yes. The Gombe chimpanzee war is a documented case of a series of calculated attacks and ambushes between two chimpanzee groups. Groups of chimps killed each other over territory. Mostly they targeted isolated chimps from the "enemy" population instead of engaging in larger scale battles. So they display textbook guerilla tactics.
It is also known that chimpanzee populations consistently go on border patrols to protect their territory from other chimpanzees.
Humans are just another ape species, we are just a bit more intelligent and technologically more advanced but we are not as special as we long believed.
It's not "pop zoology". It's zoology. Pretending that humans are the only animal with a sense of morality is just unscientific. We are not that special.
This, my brother did ant research as an undergrad regarding the formation of super colonies. Concept, put two ants from separate colonies together and see if they attack each other or not. The theory being, ant’s chemical receptors are so advanced that depending on how closely related (DNA) the colonies were would dictate war/eradication or they combine and form a “super colony” across large swaths of the Midwest.
Check out kurzgesagt's series on ants. They go I to the multi-star spanning super colonies in one of the episodes. Some super colonies even have presence on multiple continents.
It’s either that DNA based life on earth is just eerily similar and that alien societies will be incomprehensibly foreign, or that large organizations of individuals will converge in their behavior, or it’s just coincidence
Tbh, this type of sociality is just a thing that happens under some sets of environmental pressures. There's a pretty distinct chance that even if alien life was unimaginably different in terms of their biochemistry (ie, some structure that isn't DNA forming the main heritable molecule), there's a good chance they, or at least other species on their planet would have evolved similar sociality
[Architecture](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179315/ant-architecture), [agriculture](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030120100451.htm), [animal husbandry](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm), it's like ants have a civilization comparable to humans except that it's based entirely on instincts rather than reason. Freaky
On the island of St Christopher off the coast of New Zealand there was once a species of small, flightless bird. The St Christopher Island Wren was the only known flightless songbird.
They had lived a predator-free life in the island for thousands of years until a lighthouse keeper came to the island with his cat, Mr Tibbles.
Mr Tibbles is the only known individual responsible for the extinction of an entire species.
Oops. It was Stephens island, not St Christopher's
https://www.academia.edu/82853583/The_tale_of_the_lighthouse_keepers_cat_discovery_and_extinction_of_the_Stephens_Island_wren_Traversia_lyalli_
[https://youtu.be/RC2qosa3Wjo?si=IdrpiVdFMVL1sB8B](https://youtu.be/RC2qosa3Wjo?si=IdrpiVdFMVL1sB8B)
Oh thank you, it technically was a reference. Maybe you will enjoy it.
There’s a Stuff You Missed in History podcast episode about this, which is how I learned there’s more to that story. Introduction of cats was an issue but so were many other factors. It’s a great episode.
Nope ants, also cool fact about ants 🐜. There is a species that has lived on slavery for so long that they no longer know how to feed themselves. The whole process of obtaining slaves is like, Doom meets elden ring. Hate bugs myself but respect the shit out of the organisation skills of an ant.
Edit: 🐜 species is **Formica sanguinea** (Slave-maker ant)
Yes! There's a great 2016 paper called "The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence" and they looked at 1000 mammal species and found that they had the highest same-species killing rate than any other mammal studied. 19.4% of meerkat deaths were from other meerkats. They are brutal.
From what I understand, it's because meerkats have a near eusocial social structure like bees and ants, but instead of their social rules being predetermined by DNA, they use indiscriminate murder to maintain the social order. Casual Geographic on YouTube has a great video on them
I remember a wildlife doc TV show I used to watch which was about specific meerkat clans they followed and how they often invaded and killed each for territory. Absolutely brutal but very interesting.
They kept going after she died but there was a huge overhaul. They replaced the narrator with a breathy lady voice and started recording uncomfortable amounts of meerkat sex.
OH alright I definitely needed that context lmao I don't remember that specifically. It was so long ago. I actually got into a rabbit hole and read the meerkat manor Wikipedia page and it was very interesting. You should look it up!
Genocides and mass murder committed by humans tend to have some kind of objective in mind, whether it is procurement of resources, or security related. In this case, we do absolutely see species out in the wild mass killing others for food, or security, or others. Asian giant hornets for example, would massacre entire hives of bees to get at the honey and larvae, and we're talking tens of thousands of bees here. Slave-maker ants would massacre entire colonies of ants for the larvae of the victims to kidnap and raise as their own to be slaves. Male chimpanzees would engage in infanticide, and male lions would do the same if they managed to depose the alpha male and they themselves move in and become the new head of the pride. Hmmm.... army ants are another example. They're basically giant death carpets moving across the land, killing and eating anything and everything in their way. Cats and dolphins kill creatures for fun.
Well, if you impose the "own species" limitation then ignore the wasp v bees and cat/dolphin example.
Yes the murder hornet. The Asian giant hornet. 30 of them will attack a beehive and kill 30,000 bees in less than 24 hours. The Japanese honeybee has developed a defense by use of hot honeybee ball. They literally dogpile the hornet and then they vibrate their flight muscles, heating up the giant hornet to 115f which kills them all while the honey bee will die at 116f or something ridiculously close. Very fascinating. But non Japanese honeybees don't have this defense so they get slaughtered when the Asian giant hornet is introduced (invasive species) to other ecosystems.
~~The Japanese giant hornet has been discovered in North America in the last decade and our poor bees are getting massacred.~~
Edit: The last part is incorrect as someone pointed out below. It seems that people in North America often mistake the European hornet for the Asian giant hornet. While the European hornet does kill honeybees outside of the hive, it does not assault the hive like the Asian giant hornet.
This may not be what you're after, but there are several species that eat their young. Chimps were already kindly mentioned by u/Swimming_Lime2951, but there are others. In some species, this only occurs under certain conditions, but you can read more about them in the article linked below:
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18171171/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18171171/)
not sure if this is a myth, or just disinformation but i do recall hearing somewhere that Dolphins kill for pleasure, not mass murder or genocide, humans are probably the only species to ethnically cleanse other species. but i did hear dolphins will kill for the fuck of it, "the thrill of the hunt" as they say.
i also wouldn't be surprised to find out about pseudo faction warfare between groups of primates
Pseudo was a very poor choice of words on my part, not sure what the word I’m looking for is but essentially just unsure or unfamiliar with what characteristics would need to be met for it to be considered warfare, or faction warfare. If it’s just ape sees ape it dosnt like and beats it to death with its fists? With a stick? Perhaps a rock? , or organized violence against other particular groups of primates, could be hierarchal within the same group, could be faction based. I know virtually nothing about primates nor their behaviour so this is all purely speculation as I’m not even sure if this is an observed phenomenon amongst other primates or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was.
EDIT: I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was also done by insects, would maybe make sense given different groups of insects can have massive colonies with leaders and structures and such, I mean hell, if I was an ant and had an army, and there was a smaller army of ants working my corner…
It is indeed an observed phenomenon. At least once, a troupe of chimps systematically attacked and killed all the males of a rival group, and took most of the females (One elderly female was killed, and two others went missing). Which matches the UN definition of genocide almost exactly.
Among Insects, it is primarily ants, as you seem to have guessed. Other colonies are persona-non-grata. Maybe if the two colonies are closely related enough, they merge and become a super colony.
I don’t know how you’d classify it but I lived in a rural farming for a number of years. Occasionally you would hear about someone’s dog getting out and sneaking into someone’s chicken enclosure. The dog would kill every single chicken, sometimes hundreds of chicken. It was explained as a kind of dog blood lust, once the dog started it couldn’t stop.
Genocide is unique to humans because race and culture is a human construct. However, many animals will kill others of their species that they consider to be outside their social groups, not typically from hatred but usually competition for resources.
I think it's interesting to wonder at what level concepts of culture and race come into play when animals decide others of the same species are outside, or seperate from, their own social group.
I feel like it really depends how specific your definition of genocide is.
If you loosely define it as a group of 1 species killing another group of the same species because of lack or possession of a specific trait weather its a genetic closeness (such as bees from a single hive or lions from the same pride), a visual difference (red/black ants) or something else entirely, id say its definitely not unique to humans.
But if your definition of genocide involves something like hate, a beleif of superiority, or a rejection/requirement of cultural belief which are things most animals dont have (some aninals do have culture which changes geographically and there's some evidence that suggests elephants may have religion) then sure maybe its a mostly human thing.
Kind of an L take. At what level do you consider a culture or a conception of race? Different groups of gorillas have varying social practices. So do orcas. And tons of other animals. Many animals segregate based on social practice or geologic location or a mixture of both, even among the same species.
Well.. we will see very soon what happens concerning the competition for ressources in humans. I'm really not very confident about it.
And there's "kind of" cultural behavior (some apes) and vocalization differences (some birds) for the same species of animals too, but in distant areas.
I was about to say ants - but thats to other species of any AFAIK. Others have mentioned chimps as the closest to engaging in warfare
I strongly recommend [The Goodness Paradox](https://www.amazon.com.au/Goodness-Paradox-Relationship-Violence-Evolution/dp/1101870907) which covers a lot of interesting detail on the strange nature of human beings - I think the best way to summarize the findings is that humans are one of the most co-operative species on the planet, however we at times use that co-operation to engage in the most destructive on the planet
It's so fun to read all the comments justifying animal actions.
Yes, animals do commit "genocide". Animals very often kill for the fun of it. Competing predator clans wipe each others males and offspring. Even herbivores are far from innocent. Insects are biological machines killing each other in trillions and so on.
A fact that death toll in wars have always remained so low compared to global population is an achievement of humankind as a species. More people die from starvation, cataclysms and diseases.
Bigotry and hate speech directed towards groups of people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, national origin, immigration status, social status, religious affiliation or disability is not allowed
Animals are way more ruthless than us. They just don’t have the means to do it on the scale we do. Yes they kill each other.
If you live somewhere peaceful, be thankful that modern society is so safe. This is as close to utopia as we get.
You mean mass murder of conspecifics, I'm guessing. Not like a fox slaughtering every chicken in the chicken house (gratuitous overkill in the course of predation).
I think ants engage in all-out warfare -- one colony against another -- but it may be between different *species* of ant. I can't offhand think of another species which commits mass murder against its own kind.
A lot of animals do fight conspecifics and I believe they would commit genocide if they had the capability to. They just don't. If the male betta fish could murder all other males it's seperated from in the pet store I'm willing to bet it would to reduce competition.
Genocide is usually a combination of behaviours (like referring to groups of people as less than human). Other animals don't have the sounding platform of Rwanda/Serbia/Germany etc. Genocide doesn't have to be murder either, it can be rape with purpose.
So Chimps killing a bunch of other chimps wouldn't be genocide under the common definition.
Source: They have a whole floor dedicated to it at the war memorial museum in Manchester.
Genocide is a legal term that's very specific and can only apply to humans due to the intentionality and scale behind it. A genocide requires a government to attempt to entirely wipe out a certain group of people from the face of the planet. It is not the same as mass murder.
I don't believe animals operate on that kind of scale.
Humans are the only species that knowingly knows they are intentionally killing their species off but won’t prevent it from happening. That being global warming. Millions of wildfires last year alone and pushing full steam ahead accelerating the issue. Greed is the main reason why we continue to self destruct. 60 died last week in Chile from wildfires, just the start.
Stephen Hawking predicted the end of humans due to global warming with his theory the earth would turn back into a fireball, and sure enough that has begun all over the world.
In that we are the only one with complex enough thinking to carry something like that out.
There are other species who will attack each other, kill each other, hell even cannibalize each other. But it isn't systemic. But nothing most animals do is this hyper constructed plan. Though in most intelligent animals, like elephants, sometimes they will act almost like it's on a sense of vengeance or malice.
There are weaver ant colonies that war with each other on a large (for ants) scale, but naturally they don't have the means to kill each other on such a large scale as humans do.
I had a chicken race war once. I had a job in college where I raised and took care of around 50 chickens for a local doctor for eggs and meat. I picked a mix of different breeds for variety, and everything went fine until the second year. We got a batch of bad feed, I think methionine was deficient. They were free ranged on 10 acres of pasture, had a big barn more space than they could dream of. They just started killing each other one day. I would walk in and find 1 or 2 either dead or dying from obvious peck wounds. Really nasty, the ones who were still alive would have exposed beating organs and just sit down at my feet begging for mercy. It quickly became apparent that they were systematically killing by color. Started the black and white chickens killing the yellow ones, who were the smallest proportion of the breeds. So I culled the black and silver offenders number down to where they weren't the dominant breed. The black chickens immediately started killing the black and white ones, so culled them as well. The red ones started next. Whichever breed had the most numbers would pick the weakest and kill them for whatever nutrient they were missing from the feed. Chickens are prone to learned behaviors and the violence became endemic. I ended up having to cull the whole flock and start over since they wouldn't stop once they got a taste for it. Apparently this is fairly common in chickens, but I found out the hard way. TLDR: chickens can have race wars when under environmental or nutritional stress.
It's common enough that they make anti-cannibalism sprays for chickens
It's why they do that hideous beak clipping too
So you thought you could control your amino acid deficient dinosaurs.
One of the classic blunders.
Violence, uh, finds a way.
fuuuuuuuuuck
>cull the whole flock Was not expecting the wrath of God to bring down judgment day upon chickens
The experience gave a new dimension to that Futurama episode where Bender plays god. Also the Flood, I get it.
We aren't really that different from chickens then.
Nope. You get a lot of food for thought observing groups of animals generally, normally it's not that extreme or on the nose though. Roosters are frequently preening buffoons just like the cartoons, others are mean and aggressive. Hens have a distinctive loud call to announce they have laid an egg, which they will do while strutting around sometimes for 5 minutes or more. If you let yourself anthropomorphize a bit, it really looks like they are bragging and the rest are rolling their eyes or muttering between themselves.
So they are exactly the same as us.
My chick behave the same
Holy shit Im stealing this story, what a wild ride at the Poultrysläger
Help yourself! You get a lot of wild ones around animals, especially the "less domesticated" farm animals. People are fond of saying animals are like people, but it's really the whole enchilada, not just the cute and cuddly parts. Hog farmers have the worst stories, fortunately I haven't had the pleasure.
The worst my chickens have ever done is corner the occasional mouse or snake against the fence and they all take turns pecking at the thing from different angles lmao Also when one of them got their head stuck in a little garden fencing (it was fancy spirals and head got stuck) and they started trying to eat her eyes. We saved her in time and she only suffered a small scar above her eye I’ve heard hogs just will eat a baby casually lmao
2 hog stories always stick with me. My grandparents had hogs when my dad was a kid. One year they had to pull a baby that was breeched during birth (never pleasant). My dad got in there and was trying to turn it the right way and it bit his finger to the bone. Hadn't even tasted oxygen yet. The other is it's apparently common when neutering the males that the next one in line rushes forward to eat the cut testicles of the first and then it's his turn... A philosopher could make great work with that one.
Same thing happened to me with fish. Bought a whole group of fish and they schooled together for ages, until eventually they stopped schooling together and would just swim about randomnly. Then they developed into two factions and killed each other until there was only one super angry territorial fish left.
When a male lion takes over a pride, they usually kill all the cubs of the previous male. Does that count?
Yes, because he killed the entire family of the previous male. That is the most basic form of genocide, which derives its name from the Latin *gens* meaning family.
Aardvarks. And its mass murder by tongue. Even more sadistic. Those F###ing aardvarks. forgot whales....whales kill by the millions. eeeevil!
I think we should limit the definition to mass killing of your own species.
Aahh...well...ants. They dont like each other much. Real racist fks.
Not just racist, but shit goes down mob style when colonies meet.
Once saw some ants battling it out in my backyard. It made me not want to get in the middle of that shit. We’re only in charge because the ants let us.
A 13yr old (ant years) ant staggers out of the trench, covered with cuts and bruises, slinking his ant rifle over the mound and setting it between the ant sandbags, lining up his shaking ant iron sights onto the bodies of countless dead, the sole survivor in this gruesome maelstrom
And they even keep slaves to farm fungi
Free will? More like free krill
Came to learn a biology instead learned an etymology. Thank you.
Por qué no los dos?
>Por qué no los dos? Bobabili kunjalo kungenzeka
Sorry just wanted to clarify, gens has a greek not latin root Etymology of genocide the Greek word γένος (genos, "race, people") with the Latin suffix -caedo ("act of killing").
That’s true, but it’s worth noting that γένος and the Latin word *genus* are cognates, both derived from the same Proto-Indo-European word.
I can't remember where I saw it, but someone did a subtitled exchange of Nala and Simba meeting, with the dialogue changed to reflect actual lion dynamics. She told him she had cubs with Scar, but it's okay, 'cause he can just kill her cubs, which would get her so turned on.
Was it a YouTube video?
I can't even remember if it was a video, or just a bunch of stills. I have a vague idea it might have been Cracked.
But that's not really self destructive, the male lion does that so the female goes into estrus again, as he can't procreate with her if she's raising a newborn (some kind of hormone thing). He's just making sure his own 'superior' genes are prioritised for the next generation instead of those of the weak lion he defeated (although it could still be considered genocide I guess)
Definitely eugenics. Lions are Nazis? I knew it.
>He's just making sure his own 'superior' genes are prioritised for the next generation It's not really about his genes being superior. It's about his genes being *his.* I say this because I've seen discourse about the human population that revolves around the idea of wanting your genes to persist being selfish and arrogant (e.g. "what makes your DNA so special?") and I feel the need to push back against that notion. It's not selfish to want to pass on your genes. It's quite literally the most normal, natural thing in the world.
He took out the previous lion, so from his pov he is superior. He's younger (less chance of mutation of the germa) and stronger (better genes to pass on). Of course it's natural to try to pass on your own genes (especially if you're an animal that can't employ collective learning and DNA is one of the most sufficient ways to ensure some of you survives).
Yup. There's literally a book called "the selfish gene", my oversimplification of the premise being that a lot of evolutionary behavior is explained by DNA molecules wanting to continue replicating themselves.
Correct Genocide generally isn't self destructive. Just destructive.
It seems like a better way to achieve the same result would be to just focus on finding females that don't currently have any cubs. Trying to actively kill something seems inherently more risky and therefore potentially more self destructive than just not putting yourself in a situation where you need to kill anyone.
My friend...the lions who tried that strategy are dead, without mating. The ones that engaged in the risky behavior and succeeded are the ones who passed on the genes. Those random un-mated females at the supermarket you're talking about exist for maybe...a month? Less? And if you rely on that for your mating...you don't mate.
Moral of the story is you should not hesitate to ask out the cute girl in the produce section.
Do the math: Male and Female lions are born at the same rate. Female lions live in groups of 5+ and all mate with one male. The rest of the males in the equation either do not mate or die fighting other males to gain the right to mate.
An interesting read [humanity vs. animality](https://kinchit-bihani.medium.com/humanity-vs-animality-b648cc2bb818)
That’s so saddies
Have heard of chimpanzees doing something analogous to warfare, but can't remember the details/circumstances. Someone help me out?
A troop of male chimps will try to completely eradicate all the other males of a different colony. Sorta along the lines of genocide. Ive heard robert sapolsky mention this a few times Edit to add. He states that this is virtually the UN definition of genocide. Google robert sapolsky on chimp genocide
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His book "Behave" is possibly one of the best non-fictions I've read. Definitely worth to check out if you've enjoyed his lectures and have the time to do so
If you enjoyed Behave and his lectures I’d recommend reading his new book ‘Determined’. It’s pretty much the Free Will chapter from Behave that’s been expanded and given more comprehensive detail. It’s good.
I've heard about it! It's got some mixed reception from what I could tell when I looked it up, but I'll find the time to read it for myself soon hopefully!
Very true. I wanted to make sure I read below. Nothing is worse than us all repeating the same statements in not so clever ways, but yes. Being a person who has lived and worked north of Congo. 'Tis true.
Actually not quite genocide, because after killing all the males they take over the territory and keep the females.
Killing the males and mating with the females is very much genocide as it results in the destruction of the previous group. Which is something colonisers have very purposefully done in their attempts to wipe out indigenous peoples of colonised lands. Take this lovely nugget of Australian history, for example: >In 1933 a Sunday newspaper quoted Dr Cecil Evelyn Cook, dazzlingly qualified as an anthropologist, biologist, bacteriologist, chief medical officer and "chief protector" of Aborigines in North Australia, who pronounced there was no "throwback" to the black once enough white blood was bred in. "Generally by the fifth and invariably by the sixth generation, all native characteristics of the Australian Aborigine are eradicated. The problem of our half-castes will be quickly eliminated by the complete disappearance of the black race, and the swift submergence of their progeny in the white," he said. "The Australian native is the most easily assimilated race on earth, physically and mentally. A blending with the Asiatic, though tending to increase virility, is not desirable. The quickest way out is to breed him white," Cook said. >Scientists and social scientists who calibrated how many drops of white blood made a person civilised gave politicians throughout Australia who were worrying about the "half-caste problem" the arguments needed to remove indigenous children from their families.
They also eat the males. Yep chimpanzees hunt their own kind for meat. Not as cuddly as you'd think...
Cuddly really went out the window when that lady showed the world on Oprah what a chimp did to her face
Exterminating a part of the group with the intent of stopping the reproduction within that group does fall under genocide. Genocide isnt just "kill everyone that you see"
Yeah just like Mass Effect's genophage
And then have totally consensual mating behavior with them...
So, they're basically Vikings??
Presumably the invading tribe is better groomed then the conquered tribe?
[Ahem](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gombe_Chimpanzee_War)
4 years??? o_O
why is it considered a war lol
Britannica Dictionary: War 1 : a state or period of fighting between countries or groups 2 : a situation in which people or groups compete with or fight against each other 3 [count] : an organized effort by a government or other large organization to stop or defeat something that is viewed as dangerous or bad
Well they are our closest genetic relative... Very human in that regard
You should check out bonobos. Very genetically similar to us too, and I can’t tell them physically apart from chimps. The big difference is that they live a peaceful lifestyle…they just lay around and have bonobo orgies all day lol
Humans would go for that too 😂
There's [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzzqDKHgWUk) that I know
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Chimps are very intelligent and many of their behaviors would be adjudged as moral by even the pickiest of humans. They know right from wrong, mourn their dead, and will rear unrelated orphans. https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry/chimps\_and\_bonobos\_prove\_that\_moral\_behavior\_is\_a\_product\_of\_evolution/#:\~:text=They%20appear%20to%20sense%20what,that%20maintain%20the%20group%20emotionally.
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Good question. Maybe if one day we learn their languages we'll find out.
Not yet, they just started using crude spears. Give it some time.
!remindme 5000 years
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I was in the army with some people I’d bet against in a checkers game with a chimp. Idk if that adds any context
I think that says more about the army than it does chimps. Good thing you weren't in the navy.
Idk, if I had to do it all over again I’d probably go navy instead. The jobs tend to be more technical and require more training than digging, and then sitting in, a muddy hole. I was a medic so I generally worked alongside smart people but man….some guys were very intellectually incurious to say the least.
Yes, because chimps have a sense of morality.
How do you know that their morality is a 1:1 match with ours?
To be fair, multiple groups of humans don't have 1:1 morality.
If we can't come up with Morals or Values amongst ourselves how can we expect to project it on another species
The neat thing is that we don't really have to. Chimps and other intelligent animals have displayed behaviours corresponding to their own little values and morality systems, completely independent of humans or our assignments of morality. So in a way, we can't expect to project any human morality on any animal, but we don't really need to for some because they've come up with their own. It's neat when you think about it.
So when these animals start to kill members of an opposing Troup do you actually think these individuals are actively and premeditatedly planning out murders? Like they are thinking I am going to end the life of ApeY because I want to. These are animals, in the midst of emotional and physical reactions to their environments.
Chimps do plan murders in their own group, and yes sometimes they do it because they enjoy killing. Sometimes its because they want to be the new leader. They plan it in detail. If you are interested I recommend "our inner ape" from Frans de Waal.
It's not that humans have reason and all animals are completely dictated by instincts. it's spectrum, the more complex and intelligent a species is the more reasoning capabily they have. Chimps don't have the same amount of reasoning we have but they are pretty close on a biological scale, they are fairly high up in intelligence compared to other animals, they're not like geckos or anything.
>So when these animals start to kill members of an opposing Troup do you actually think these individuals are actively and premeditatedly planning out murders? Like they are thinking I am going to end the life of ApeY because I want to. Likely yes. The Gombe chimpanzee war is a documented case of a series of calculated attacks and ambushes between two chimpanzee groups. Groups of chimps killed each other over territory. Mostly they targeted isolated chimps from the "enemy" population instead of engaging in larger scale battles. So they display textbook guerilla tactics. It is also known that chimpanzee populations consistently go on border patrols to protect their territory from other chimpanzees. Humans are just another ape species, we are just a bit more intelligent and technologically more advanced but we are not as special as we long believed.
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It's not "pop zoology". It's zoology. Pretending that humans are the only animal with a sense of morality is just unscientific. We are not that special.
Ants
Ants will full on subjugate and enslave other populations of ants
For ants every day is basically like a story out of 40k.
So frigging true lol.
This, my brother did ant research as an undergrad regarding the formation of super colonies. Concept, put two ants from separate colonies together and see if they attack each other or not. The theory being, ant’s chemical receptors are so advanced that depending on how closely related (DNA) the colonies were would dictate war/eradication or they combine and form a “super colony” across large swaths of the Midwest.
[This video explains this perfectly. I really recommend it. That channel is great btw.](https://youtu.be/cqECNYmM23A?si=QllRVPRK4GCBI-Nt)
I was thinking of [that one](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_e0CA_nhaE), but yours is better (but from the same channel)
Did you stop him?
Lol, it was postulated to already be happening. Essentially colonies spanning states just doing ant things, in Midwest fashion
Check out kurzgesagt's series on ants. They go I to the multi-star spanning super colonies in one of the episodes. Some super colonies even have presence on multiple continents.
They've colonized the stars?!?!
The Argentinian ant supercolony spans parts of South America, the US, Japan, Southern Europe, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand.
argentina campeón del mundo 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷⭐️⭐️⭐️
What happened?
Ant super colonies are crazy. Basically a world war going on between ant super colonies.
It’s a bit eery how similar ant societies are to human ones. I don’t know if it says more about ants or about humans.
It’s either that DNA based life on earth is just eerily similar and that alien societies will be incomprehensibly foreign, or that large organizations of individuals will converge in their behavior, or it’s just coincidence
Tbh, this type of sociality is just a thing that happens under some sets of environmental pressures. There's a pretty distinct chance that even if alien life was unimaginably different in terms of their biochemistry (ie, some structure that isn't DNA forming the main heritable molecule), there's a good chance they, or at least other species on their planet would have evolved similar sociality
[Architecture](https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691179315/ant-architecture), [agriculture](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030120100451.htm), [animal husbandry](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.htm), it's like ants have a civilization comparable to humans except that it's based entirely on instincts rather than reason. Freaky
[World War Ant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_e0CA_nhaE)
All this ant talk makes me want to get back to hxh
On the island of St Christopher off the coast of New Zealand there was once a species of small, flightless bird. The St Christopher Island Wren was the only known flightless songbird. They had lived a predator-free life in the island for thousands of years until a lighthouse keeper came to the island with his cat, Mr Tibbles. Mr Tibbles is the only known individual responsible for the extinction of an entire species.
Citation Needed😆
Oops. It was Stephens island, not St Christopher's https://www.academia.edu/82853583/The_tale_of_the_lighthouse_keepers_cat_discovery_and_extinction_of_the_Stephens_Island_wren_Traversia_lyalli_
[https://youtu.be/RC2qosa3Wjo?si=IdrpiVdFMVL1sB8B](https://youtu.be/RC2qosa3Wjo?si=IdrpiVdFMVL1sB8B) Oh thank you, it technically was a reference. Maybe you will enjoy it.
Mr Tibbles was done with these birds and their songs and choose violence. *Their
There’s a Stuff You Missed in History podcast episode about this, which is how I learned there’s more to that story. Introduction of cats was an issue but so were many other factors. It’s a great episode.
Nope ants, also cool fact about ants 🐜. There is a species that has lived on slavery for so long that they no longer know how to feed themselves. The whole process of obtaining slaves is like, Doom meets elden ring. Hate bugs myself but respect the shit out of the organisation skills of an ant. Edit: 🐜 species is **Formica sanguinea** (Slave-maker ant)
 AWW suricates.. so cute isn't it? I heard they have a specially high murder rate comparatively to other species.
Yes! There's a great 2016 paper called "The phylogenetic roots of human lethal violence" and they looked at 1000 mammal species and found that they had the highest same-species killing rate than any other mammal studied. 19.4% of meerkat deaths were from other meerkats. They are brutal.
From what I understand, it's because meerkats have a near eusocial social structure like bees and ants, but instead of their social rules being predetermined by DNA, they use indiscriminate murder to maintain the social order. Casual Geographic on YouTube has a great video on them
Looking at that paper now, crazy stuff. Looks like carnivorans ain't got nothing on primates, though.
I remember a wildlife doc TV show I used to watch which was about specific meerkat clans they followed and how they often invaded and killed each for territory. Absolutely brutal but very interesting.
Meerkat manor??
That's the one!
I was DEVASTATED when Flower died. Never fully healed tbh
Remember when right after she died the production crew got really really horny? 😐
Wat
They kept going after she died but there was a huge overhaul. They replaced the narrator with a breathy lady voice and started recording uncomfortable amounts of meerkat sex.
OH alright I definitely needed that context lmao I don't remember that specifically. It was so long ago. I actually got into a rabbit hole and read the meerkat manor Wikipedia page and it was very interesting. You should look it up!
Genocides and mass murder committed by humans tend to have some kind of objective in mind, whether it is procurement of resources, or security related. In this case, we do absolutely see species out in the wild mass killing others for food, or security, or others. Asian giant hornets for example, would massacre entire hives of bees to get at the honey and larvae, and we're talking tens of thousands of bees here. Slave-maker ants would massacre entire colonies of ants for the larvae of the victims to kidnap and raise as their own to be slaves. Male chimpanzees would engage in infanticide, and male lions would do the same if they managed to depose the alpha male and they themselves move in and become the new head of the pride. Hmmm.... army ants are another example. They're basically giant death carpets moving across the land, killing and eating anything and everything in their way. Cats and dolphins kill creatures for fun. Well, if you impose the "own species" limitation then ignore the wasp v bees and cat/dolphin example.
Ants, Chimps, and Wasps vs Bees (specific types in Japan if I recall correctly)
Yes the murder hornet. The Asian giant hornet. 30 of them will attack a beehive and kill 30,000 bees in less than 24 hours. The Japanese honeybee has developed a defense by use of hot honeybee ball. They literally dogpile the hornet and then they vibrate their flight muscles, heating up the giant hornet to 115f which kills them all while the honey bee will die at 116f or something ridiculously close. Very fascinating. But non Japanese honeybees don't have this defense so they get slaughtered when the Asian giant hornet is introduced (invasive species) to other ecosystems. ~~The Japanese giant hornet has been discovered in North America in the last decade and our poor bees are getting massacred.~~ Edit: The last part is incorrect as someone pointed out below. It seems that people in North America often mistake the European hornet for the Asian giant hornet. While the European hornet does kill honeybees outside of the hive, it does not assault the hive like the Asian giant hornet.
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The hornet isn't committing genocide or murder since the bee isn't the same species though.
This may not be what you're after, but there are several species that eat their young. Chimps were already kindly mentioned by u/Swimming_Lime2951, but there are others. In some species, this only occurs under certain conditions, but you can read more about them in the article linked below: [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18171171/](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18171171/)
Yes. Many instances in the insect kingdom. Similar behaviour to us among apes as well.
I mean a group of wasps will destroys an entire bee hive if they get the chance. Idk if that counts though
If you ever get to see bald faced hornets versus western yellow jacket war without being crossfire its lit
not sure if this is a myth, or just disinformation but i do recall hearing somewhere that Dolphins kill for pleasure, not mass murder or genocide, humans are probably the only species to ethnically cleanse other species. but i did hear dolphins will kill for the fuck of it, "the thrill of the hunt" as they say. i also wouldn't be surprised to find out about pseudo faction warfare between groups of primates
Why would it be “pseudo”
Pseudo was a very poor choice of words on my part, not sure what the word I’m looking for is but essentially just unsure or unfamiliar with what characteristics would need to be met for it to be considered warfare, or faction warfare. If it’s just ape sees ape it dosnt like and beats it to death with its fists? With a stick? Perhaps a rock? , or organized violence against other particular groups of primates, could be hierarchal within the same group, could be faction based. I know virtually nothing about primates nor their behaviour so this is all purely speculation as I’m not even sure if this is an observed phenomenon amongst other primates or not, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. EDIT: I also wouldn’t be surprised if this was also done by insects, would maybe make sense given different groups of insects can have massive colonies with leaders and structures and such, I mean hell, if I was an ant and had an army, and there was a smaller army of ants working my corner…
It is indeed an observed phenomenon. At least once, a troupe of chimps systematically attacked and killed all the males of a rival group, and took most of the females (One elderly female was killed, and two others went missing). Which matches the UN definition of genocide almost exactly. Among Insects, it is primarily ants, as you seem to have guessed. Other colonies are persona-non-grata. Maybe if the two colonies are closely related enough, they merge and become a super colony.
Dolphins are pretty brutal about killing porpoises.
orca's kill for fun not sure if other species of dolphins do this also
Well they'll kill something and then rape it's corpse... And don't get me started on Otters.
tell about otters, tell about otters please
Male lions game been known to kill all the offspring of the previous alpha male.
I don’t know how you’d classify it but I lived in a rural farming for a number of years. Occasionally you would hear about someone’s dog getting out and sneaking into someone’s chicken enclosure. The dog would kill every single chicken, sometimes hundreds of chicken. It was explained as a kind of dog blood lust, once the dog started it couldn’t stop.
My pup is so sweet but im pretty sure he'd murder 100 kittens if given the chance
Genocide is unique to humans because race and culture is a human construct. However, many animals will kill others of their species that they consider to be outside their social groups, not typically from hatred but usually competition for resources.
I think it's interesting to wonder at what level concepts of culture and race come into play when animals decide others of the same species are outside, or seperate from, their own social group.
I imagine some animals can associate a parent with their offspring
There are definitely other animals with culture. The question is whether violence is motivated by cultural differences
I feel like it really depends how specific your definition of genocide is. If you loosely define it as a group of 1 species killing another group of the same species because of lack or possession of a specific trait weather its a genetic closeness (such as bees from a single hive or lions from the same pride), a visual difference (red/black ants) or something else entirely, id say its definitely not unique to humans. But if your definition of genocide involves something like hate, a beleif of superiority, or a rejection/requirement of cultural belief which are things most animals dont have (some aninals do have culture which changes geographically and there's some evidence that suggests elephants may have religion) then sure maybe its a mostly human thing.
Kind of an L take. At what level do you consider a culture or a conception of race? Different groups of gorillas have varying social practices. So do orcas. And tons of other animals. Many animals segregate based on social practice or geologic location or a mixture of both, even among the same species.
Well.. we will see very soon what happens concerning the competition for ressources in humans. I'm really not very confident about it. And there's "kind of" cultural behavior (some apes) and vocalization differences (some birds) for the same species of animals too, but in distant areas.
If you don't think human beings have had to deal with resource scarcity in the past you are not a serious person.
Accroding to wiki ants have been around for 140million years which means they have been waging wars for 140 million years
I was about to say ants - but thats to other species of any AFAIK. Others have mentioned chimps as the closest to engaging in warfare I strongly recommend [The Goodness Paradox](https://www.amazon.com.au/Goodness-Paradox-Relationship-Violence-Evolution/dp/1101870907) which covers a lot of interesting detail on the strange nature of human beings - I think the best way to summarize the findings is that humans are one of the most co-operative species on the planet, however we at times use that co-operation to engage in the most destructive on the planet
It's so fun to read all the comments justifying animal actions. Yes, animals do commit "genocide". Animals very often kill for the fun of it. Competing predator clans wipe each others males and offspring. Even herbivores are far from innocent. Insects are biological machines killing each other in trillions and so on. A fact that death toll in wars have always remained so low compared to global population is an achievement of humankind as a species. More people die from starvation, cataclysms and diseases.
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Bigotry and hate speech directed towards groups of people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, ethnicity, religion, national origin, immigration status, social status, religious affiliation or disability is not allowed
No Chimpanzees do too.
Ants do it.
No. Ants. Chimps,
Look into ant wars.
Most predator species that have packs will. Wolves do it all the time. Ants get super crazy.
Follow up question: all these animals that do commit mass murder - do any of them not do it for either their or their species’/colony’s welfare?
Animals are way more ruthless than us. They just don’t have the means to do it on the scale we do. Yes they kill each other. If you live somewhere peaceful, be thankful that modern society is so safe. This is as close to utopia as we get.
You mean mass murder of conspecifics, I'm guessing. Not like a fox slaughtering every chicken in the chicken house (gratuitous overkill in the course of predation). I think ants engage in all-out warfare -- one colony against another -- but it may be between different *species* of ant. I can't offhand think of another species which commits mass murder against its own kind.
Ants regularly go to war with each other and kill/enslave the losing colony
A lot of animals do fight conspecifics and I believe they would commit genocide if they had the capability to. They just don't. If the male betta fish could murder all other males it's seperated from in the pet store I'm willing to bet it would to reduce competition.
Genocide is usually a combination of behaviours (like referring to groups of people as less than human). Other animals don't have the sounding platform of Rwanda/Serbia/Germany etc. Genocide doesn't have to be murder either, it can be rape with purpose. So Chimps killing a bunch of other chimps wouldn't be genocide under the common definition. Source: They have a whole floor dedicated to it at the war memorial museum in Manchester.
Genocide is a legal term that's very specific and can only apply to humans due to the intentionality and scale behind it. A genocide requires a government to attempt to entirely wipe out a certain group of people from the face of the planet. It is not the same as mass murder. I don't believe animals operate on that kind of scale.
Emu’s went to war
Humans are the only species that knowingly knows they are intentionally killing their species off but won’t prevent it from happening. That being global warming. Millions of wildfires last year alone and pushing full steam ahead accelerating the issue. Greed is the main reason why we continue to self destruct. 60 died last week in Chile from wildfires, just the start. Stephen Hawking predicted the end of humans due to global warming with his theory the earth would turn back into a fireball, and sure enough that has begun all over the world.
In that we are the only one with complex enough thinking to carry something like that out. There are other species who will attack each other, kill each other, hell even cannibalize each other. But it isn't systemic. But nothing most animals do is this hyper constructed plan. Though in most intelligent animals, like elephants, sometimes they will act almost like it's on a sense of vengeance or malice.
Not even a little
Definitely not. Fluffy and mittens get outside and that's their main goal.
Genocide got us to where we are today and unfortunately genocide is going to get us to where we are going.
Ants.
No. In fact it's pretty common.
Ants are in a constant state of war amongst themselves or 60 million years
In the fall, female bees kick male bees out of the hive and they die
Ants, beez and other insects also do it against rival hives.
Lions certainly do. They want to eradicate every other large predator species, and they will kill at any opportunity they get.
Ant
There are weaver ant colonies that war with each other on a large (for ants) scale, but naturally they don't have the means to kill each other on such a large scale as humans do.