Enigmatic Death Due to 'Social Stress' A Problem in the Strategy of Research

Abstract

During a social encounter, an animal falls down and dies without evident cause. How should we try to understand such a phenomenon? We may attribute it to an emotion, such as fear or humiliation. At the other extreme, we may try to reduce it to physiology – say, malfunction of hormones or the nervous system. We may relate it to the social structure of the species, or to effects of crowding and their ecological implications. It is also, in biology, usual to ask about the evolution of a trait: hence we may find ourselves examining the survival value of death.