At 09:46 AM 1/14/99 -0800, Mark wrote:
>> IAN: If mice are in low-crowed environments but
>> get violent in high crowding, but each condition
>> is under laboratory conditions where the mice are
>> not hunting for food in either scenario, they are
>> deprived of hunting situations equally in both
>> low and high crowing scenarios. This would tend
>> to suggest that hunting depravation is Not the
>> cause of increasing violence upon crowding,
>
>What if the mice are programmed to switch from scavenging to actively
>hunting at high population levels, regardless of food availability?
IAN: Even if that's true, it only tells us that depriving animals of space (not of hunting) induces a hunting instinct.
>I have no evidence for it, so I'm probably hopelessly incorrect, but I
>could see that *in their natural circumstances* at a low population level
>they'd do well as scavengers but at high population levels they'd have
>to search more actively. Evolution could have built in some suitable
>programming based on the population density (e.g. level of mouse scent)
>rather than food availability.
>
>Either way further experimentation would be required to decide the issue;
>I don't think it's as clear-cut as you believe.
IAN: I also think it's not so clear-cut. It's an interesting theory that even if it isn't 100% true raises some issues that may be.
"What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday,
& our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow:
our life is the creation of our mind."
Buddha (The Dhammapada)