Moral Dilemma

[Foxhill]

Does a Praying Mantis get bored,   is it cruel to keep animals in containers, is it wrong to permanently murder insects for food, at what point does one life form become superior to another? when its higher up on the food chain?  I suppose eating chickens, pigs, sheep, cows and fish  raises the same issues?    

 

[Mantis Lady]

I don't know if mantids get bored. If they are having out time. (free to climb my desk) They wander till they find a spot just to hang like in their homes.

In nature life is hard: eat or be eaten. Meat eating insects need other insects to die so they can grow. I think if every insect stays alive they will be a plaque, if you see how many eggs an single insect lays.

Humans have kept chickens and cattle for food for ages and hunted them animals in the past. But sometimes humans got eaten too by other meat eaters. That is nature.

 

[minomantis]

So topics like this can be debated for days, even months. lol  Here are a few of my ideas.

I don't think they get 'bored'  I just try to base it off of are they thriving or just existing.  Thriving: showing good color, have a good appetite, inquisitive, molting regularly.  "Murder" is a strong word that I don't think can be associated with a fly.  The fly will get eaten or die anyway in the wild.

Because we're humans, we think about how animals (using it generally, but encompassing insects) feel, think, what they want in life, when I'm pretty sure the only thing that is innately "on their mind" is eat, hide, mate.  I think a mantids most basic thought is to survive, nothing more.

We as hobbyist give mantids a home where we can study, observe, and enjoy what they do best, all with the utmost care.(granted we all do our research on a species before keeping them) lol.  The wild is not so forgiving.  Probably 6/10 (my own statistic, but I'm sure not so far fetched) mantids that I find in the wild have some sort of battle wound.  The plain reason that 100 nymphs will come out of an ooth is because probably 6 will make it to adulthood ya know. 

You could think of the container idea on a larger scale with dogs.  Dogs don't need us.  They could survive in the wild, and many do (for many reasons)  We keep them in a house (a larger container) and interact with them when we desire.  Who says that that is any better than the mantids. (I know dogs show more signs of communication and desire more than a mantis, but same idea).  The thing is we LOVE our animals and treat them how they should be treated.  Heck, a lot of us go above AND beyond to make sure our mantids are doing ok and living the life.

I guess at the end of the day, if we care for them properly and show them an ounce of respect, we're doing something right. lol.  Sorry for the long response.

 

[Foxhill]

True  .. Locusts have ruined crops and caused starvation to man also... Thanks LM.. wise words

 

[Foxhill]

Nice one mino       .Good ideas

 

[Foxhill]

I can understand why lots of animals pick each other off, its to take out the weak which would weaken the gene pool and let the strong flourish. As for eating the male it would make sense to provide nutrient to the offspring after mating since the males job is done by that point.   I havnt worked out why certain creatures would eat the eggs that theve just laid, it doesnt make sense to me ??

 

[Foxhill]

I had a cat when I was young who wasnt old enough to bare kittens and when she gave birth they were under developed, hence to say... she ate them

 

[hysteresis]

Battle Royale 

 

[Graceface]

I echo the thoughts of @minomantis

Getting 'bored' is a human quality, which I'm not sure Animals feel. We tend to place human qualities on animals; it's in our nature.

There's no need to pity an animal that is well cared for, just because of a lack of danger/excitement/perceived realism of environment. I consider our mantids fortunate to exist in a safe world where they get to just be themselves with no fear of predation. Not a luxury they will be afforded in the wild. 

I pamper my cats (and mantids) and then envision myself in a world of luxury and safety, like them. A welcome respite from the awful things in the world at large

 

[Synapze]

If your mantis was large enough to eat you, it would do so without hesitation or remorse. 

Although they can't appreciate it, we give them extended lifespans, free hand-delivered meals and free room and board. We should all he so lucky.

Mantids are incapable of boredom. In the wild, they would most likely sit in the same area anyway... but without the free food.

 

[MantisGirl13]

If your mantis was large enough to eat you, it would do so without hesitation or remorse. 

Although they can't appreciate it, we give them extended lifespans, free hand-delivered meals and free room and board. We should all he so lucky.

Lol, probably true! 

 

[Mantis Lady]

There's no need to pity an animal that is well cared for, just because of a lack of danger/excitement/perceived realism of environment. I consider our mantids fortunate to exist in a safe world where they get to just be themselves with no fear of predation. Not a luxury they will be afforded in the wild.  

i agree on that. and free meals

 

[Foxhill]

Ive thought it through and as you said if a Mantis is healthy, well fed, correct conditions and generally thriving .. then its happy. As for the bait, a praying mantis doesnt have a karmic debt when it eats another insect, thats what its designed to do so were just helping it to do what it does naturally and so Im not going to feel bad about giving it live food to chew on.... God have I gone soft.    Thanks for your advice !

 

[Graceface]

 God have I gone soft. Thanks for your advice !

I think we all are a bit soft, or we wouldn't care for living creatures as a hobby. It's natural, imo, to empathize with others, be it animals or humans, so don't feel bad about it. 

As one of my favorite artists said, "It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind." 

 

[River Dane]

The idea that nature is free and beautiful is only seen that way because we are the ones with the freedom to come and go from it as we please. Camping is a fun thing to do not because it’s nice to be out in nature, but because we have the freedom to return. Have you tried camping for 30 years? 50 years?

Humans offer consciousness and empathy, which nature does not. You can see these videos of animals like butterflies being released into nature only to fly for a few seconds before being swiped away in the beak of a bird. That “beautiful animal that deserves to be free” would end up a mangled corpse in the wild. You just don’t die of old age. 

Males die younger in almost all species (and eaten by their mates in mantids!) because once you’re past reproductive age, your “purpose” in the wild has been served, at which point nature sees you as worthless. On the bright side, it’s also why animals, such as humans, with paternal instincts have less or nonexistent life expectancy gaps between the sexes (women living longer than men is quite a complicated story)

Obviously, we can’t just start domesticating every animal in existence, but it’s just worth pointing out that the reason we like taking cool-looking or cute wild animals out of nature is to protect it, even if we only subconsciously realize it. If you’ve ever lost a pet, you know the thing you fear most is whether or not “nature will take it’s course.” It’s the same with mantids, to a much lesser extent.

And as for boredom, a pet mantis would pretty much be doing the same things a wild one would, except with much less stress. We get bored because our minds are designed to handle constant stimulation in the form of stress and danger. We should consider ourselves lucky when we feel bored.