Firstly, to whoever embedded the video: Thanks! I didn't know that one could embed BBC stuff.
That said... mmm, yeah, StrawberryDream, the tadpoles are indeed eating infertile eggs, according to the article:
"In the case of mountain chickens, we have discovered that the female comes into the nest and starts laying a string of infertile eggs. ... We thought that the eggs would come out and drop to the bottom of the nest and then the tadpoles would start eating them. But the footage shows about 40 tadpoles congregating around the female and eating the eggs as they come out of the female's body."For better or for worse, however, cannibalistic siblicide does occur here and there in the animal kingdom. Marbled salamanders
preferentially eat their siblings, I believe, and the parasitic wasps that we talked about in
this thread don't seem too concerned about eating their brothers and sisters. And I'm sorry to say that as cute as they are many ladybugs eat their siblings, too...
With regard to whether the scene really is "alien"... well, I suppose that that is debatable. Still, I've got to say that personally I find it fairly weird. I mean, imagine if Octomom had just given birth... and then the eight newborns
scampered up her thighs to devour the emerging placentae. Well, this froggy situation would still be weirder. I admit that if Octomom could also shoot laser beams from her eyes then
that would be weirder.
Thanks for the replies, everybody!
SpelBelieving the strangest things...
Edit: I forgot to add the link to "The Puppet Masters"...