Do animals really commit suicide?

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Do-Animals-Commit-Suicide-63441.shtml

Here's another article on animal suicide.

Humans are very curious animals. They are also often unwittingly guilty of anthropomorphism. Since sub-humans don't really share their innermost feelings with us in a clear, unmistakeable verbal language except through ambiguous bodily gestures, all human thoughts and ideas about sub-human animal behavior, including suicide, are just speculations and conjectures. Time should be more beneficially spent on contemplating on our own death by suicide.

We have to give Freud some credit for the insight of death wish as opposed to life force (dualism is useful in explaining most phenomenon, physical or otherwise. Unitarianism is for deeper or more knowledgeable minds. Buddha had such mind).

To my way of thinking, there are three types of (human) suicidal behavior:

1. The conscious, deliberate, attention-getting kind where the act of taking one's life is for the common good of the group/tribe/nation (kamikaze pilots, contemporary suicide bombers), assertion of human dignity or protest (sell-immolation of the Tunisian fruit vendor that triggered the Tunisian Revolution)

2. The quiet, slow surrender to the idea that one's life no longer has meaning and thus death is preferable to living. The idea takes hold in one's mind and proves to be irresistible: a  very interesting phenomenon/process where an irrational, harmful thought/ idea drives the mind and the mind is incapable of holding it down or keeping it at bay. Madness no longer stands at the door. It is now in the master bedroom and takes over the house. Why is it so? A failure, breakdown at the cellular level or is it a result of weak will power? What is will power, anyway? Why do some humans seem to have it abundantly while do others seem to lack it?

3. The self-destructive, suicidal lifestyle either as a cry for help or a sign of lack of will power to resist harmful impulses.

Conclusion: to really live, one must have a clear purpose and mission other than just mere preoccupation with self-preservation, otherwise one can never be more than an animal, pure and simple. To be born as a human is a privilege and an honor. One must live one's life as such.