No no, you are all going to far in the direction of what animals do consciously. I am not talking about what they knowingly value or appreciate. Sorry for the confusing title and maybe also my poor choice of words for the introduction :T

I am talking about the pure instinct of a young animal.

Let me try to explain it better with some more examples:
If you throw something small towards a kitten, it will try to catch it. If something hisses, a kitten will take distance. These are pure instincts that the little kitten has never learned. I admit that in the case of a cat this doesn´t change much as it grows up, but that is beside the point.

An elephant baby will never try to catch or kill something that is crawling on the ground, but it will keep distance from something that hisses. Hence, it has the same instinct like the cat when it comes to a hissing danger, but it doesn´t have the instinct about something small that is moving.

Now, the one is a herbivore and the other a predator. If we can find more examples of each type and come to the conclusion that all predators have this hunting instinct but all herbivores don´t, then maybe the human being is also a predator that is born with the instinct to kill.

If this is so, we could have an explanation for why people hunt

But what surprises me is, that I can´t think of any other predators that have this instinct which kittens have.

And neither can I think of a young animal that shares the joy of killing insects like a child does. If you can´t either, then why is it that humans are born with this joy of killing?

carsten,
we were told an incident which happend in botswana:

jack, a famous hunter in den 60s to 80s had settled with his wife and children in the makgadikgadik pan in botswana. ralph his son grew up with a leopard cub. jack tought his children to stop any movement immedialtely when they were told so. once ralph was playing in the "backyard" and the leopard was relaxing in the same vicinity. all of a sudden when ralph, 3 years old then, turned his back towards the leo and started running this mighty leopard started stalking the boy. jack thanks god came across on time and ordered ralph to stop moving and turning his front to the leopard and the game was over means the leopard stopped stalking and relaxed again!

by the way: jack survived several plane crashes in botswana but died as a result of a plane crash which was piloted by his son ralph in the late 80s or early 90s. ralph now is the successor of jack's and lead the jack's camp and san camp in botswana and also several special safaris on quad's etc.
jacj is in the guiness book of records because he killed more than 50.000 crocs during his hunter career - which i don't admire at all! nevertheless he must have been a character! so is his son ralph!

some infos on jack's camp:
awesome place in the middle of nowhere in the makgadikgadik salt pan!
quad bike excursions only in tracks because of the fragile soil which conserves any imprint for decades!
studies on brown hyena and meercats!
awesome tents (persian rugs, colonial solid furniture incl. 4-poster beds, extremly knowledgable guide (biologists etc.)
silver curtlery and bone china - all in midst of this huge salt pan - some might call it decadence
gorgeous landscape - moon like
expensive ------ but one-in-a-lifetime-thing!

Carsten:

then maybe the human being is also a predator that is born with the instinct to kill.

Humans are historically considered "predators". Another way of classifying humans is as "hunter gatherer". The instinct to hunt in humans is genetically there and whether a child grows up to be a hunter or not is as a result of his/her upbringing.

Original von bwanamich
Carsten:

then maybe the human being is also a predator that is born with the instinct to kill.

Humans are historically considered "predators". Another way of classifying humans is as "hunter gatherer". The instinct to hunt in humans is genetically there and whether a child grows up to be a hunter or not is as a result of his/her upbringing.