Inner Nature: Cannibalism – proscribed or protein?

By Vidya Rajan, Columnist, The Times Expose a young mouse mother to a stressful stimulus – say a sudden loud noise – and she may eat her own pups. Rough for the young. But what turns a mother from nurture to cannibalism in an instant? Bees will also eat their young – younger larvae first – under some circumstances ([1]). And humans too. Why do they do it? Cannibalism, which is the consumption...