Crustacean Deathmatches on Japanese TV
February 11th, 2009 by James
Do Crustaceans have feelings? I sure hope not, because TV Tokyo set up some pretty brutal duels between them on a recent program.
The particularly segment was meant to show how the mantis shrimp is an unbelievable badass. A single mantis shrimp was paired up against other menacing sea creatures, resulting in ultra-violent cage matches.
The first battle was between the mantis shrimp and a crab of the species forestia depressa:
After pummeling the poor little crab into oblivion, the mantis shrimp feasted on one of it’s claws!
The second battle was between the mantis shrimp and a tough-looking elbow crab:
The eblow crab delivered some strong punches, but in the end it was knocked out by the mantis shrimp.
The mantis shrimp then moved on to duel a huge Japanese blunthorn lobster:
There was no clear winner in this bout, but the judges gave the victory to the mantis shrimp.
Having defeated an assortment of crustaceans, the mantis shrimp advanced to face its final opponent- a sunadako octopus:
Strong as the mantis shrimp was, its punches were no match for the octopus’ tentacles!
This was:
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
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Im pretty sure crustaceans dont have feelings, or perhaps feel pain, but seeing creatures being forced to fight to the death for our own amusement is just cruel
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The destructive and foolish child in me says this is is “terribly stupid awesome,” but really its just “terribly stupid.”
As I understand it, fighting insects is a childhood past time for many Japanese children. I can understand why a group of children find a praying mantis and put it up against a crawfish or something like that. It is in a way a learning moment. Kind of like when I cut a snake in half when I was 5. I cried and cried for an hour or so afterward.
The difference here being that adults are watching these creatures maim each other for entertainment. That is rather pathetic.
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So it’s not Ok for Creatures to fight.
But it’s perfectly ok to watch two Humans pound the living crap out of each other?
Remeber, not everyone is raised in the same culture as Americans.
In South America Cockfighting is a favorite pastime.
The Middle East? They love Dogfighting.
All humans love violence. It’s ingrained into us.
By calling them pathetic, you are only insulting yourself.
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Yeah – horribly cruel. I’m sure all those critters were best friends back home in the ocean – NOT!
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I just found that shrimp thing to be gross. Talk about a sea cockroach. Sheesh!
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Mantis shrimp actually very tasty. Next time you go to a sushi bar order some Shako.
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It’s true..most crustaceans seem just like sea bugs when you think about it.
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totally awsom and you shut the helll up his is fucken awsome
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Very stupid.
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awesome!
I need more of this in my life!
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someone call sea shephard :p
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I knew that one was coming. Ha.
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effing cool. Looks like anime.
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Wow, votes perfectly even
A total of 304 votes, 101 votes for awesome and terrible, stupid leads by one vote at 102
I declare it terrible.
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really foolish program.
Why should they kill one another?
こんな糞番組作ってるから視聴率下がるんだろ
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上がるかもしれないと思うよ。嫌だと思っても見ちゃう人もいるし。
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強肉弱食。。。学校で生物学を勉強しなかった？それとも寝ていた？
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言っている事が良くわからないな。
この場合食物連鎖ではなく
ただ単に娯楽のため殺し合わせてるわけで、
そういった事に疑問やズレを感じないのかい？
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全然感じません。エビはカニが食べ物と思っているし、タコはエビが食べ物と思っている。”殺し合い”というより”餌やり”です。
熊と虎を無理矢理合わせて、どちらが死ぬまで戦わせたら”殺し合わせている”ってことになる、間違いない。でも、金魚とミミズを合わせたら、違うやろう。イジメなんかならないよ。自然なことなのさ。
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シャコが自分と同等の大きさの甲殻類を餌と思うもんなのかぁ。
まぁシャコが餌と思っていたとしても、
シャコの生態なんて知ってる人の方が稀だし
ましてや番組内では対決として扱ってる訳だから
これが自然だとは思えないわけで、
あまり好きにはなれないなぁ
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i wish you could vote for all three. Because it was all of that at once.
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I vote terrible as I have difficulty seeing how this is much different than a cock fight. I certainly don’t consider crustaceans to be intelligent creatures but then again chickens aren’t far behind in my book. Both, however, are equally delicious.
Anyway, these fights will never be as awesome as a lobster knife fight.
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I thought it was entertaining. I don’t feel any sympathy for them because I, like many people, eat animals daily.
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I hope you don’t torture your animals before consuming them.
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There are also insect/bugs death matches. Some videos have been uploaded on dailymotion~
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It seems like even these animals can be under stress. not a good choice of theme
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I have to wonder – how many people who voted for “terrible” or “stupid” would have cast the same vote if this had been an NHK or BBC documentary on “the life of the mantis shrimp”. And if they would have voted differently, WHY?!? A shrimp doing what it does naturally – does the environment matter? If the shrimp could talk, it probably would rave about being able to hunt crab etc. in a small space where they couldn’t get away.
Of course, I doubt it would feel that way about the octopus, but I bet the octopus was fairly happy.
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There’s a difference between the lion eating your wandering 10-year old in wild Africa and feeding you child to the lion.
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But is there a difference in a wild lion eating a wandering cow, and feeding a captured lion a live cow?
Don’t think so….
And where the hell did the “child” come from?
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The problem with these matches might be that there is no doctor stop as in
boxing.
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Hi Ponta,
Yeah, like in that National Geographic special when the Cheetah ran down the antelope and grabbed it by the throat, and the ring doctor came out and stopped things since the antelope was having trouble breathing.
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The idea is that we watch the BBC to be educated. Sir David’s commentaries seldom venture into the “ringside pro-wrestling” area. You might as well as why we can have sex ed classes at school but can’t show porn. It is a long-standing rule that “educational value” supersedes a lot of what might otherwise be the standard.
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That’s not a fight, that’s murder. They expect the shrimp to go against better and more powerful opponents, til it loses, ie. dies. Small tanks…duels to death…shame on you, TV Tokyo! And Japanese audience, please speak up against this, or grow up!
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Pathetic, yes. Murder, no.
Murder only involves people killing people. You don’t murder animals.
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You do realize that a lot of the time “documentary” film-makers shooting footage of wild animals “in their natural environment” step in and “help” prey find its way to the predator, or vice versa. No difference, really.
Plus what Ed said. You can’t “murder” shrimp.
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Depends how good the documentary maker is. I doubt David Attenborough would get up to that. Disney did worse, as I recall – actually creating the lemming myth.
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This is what you find fun and entertaining? Life is fascinating. Get past the need for immediate satisfaction and maybe study one of these creatures. Take it home. See what it eats, how it lives and survives. learn something, today! It will make you a better person. This stuff is the equivalent of eating cardboard for nutrition. There’s nothing there.
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If enough rats (or humans) are crammed into a small enough cage then the same thing would happen.
Cairo, Egypt is a good example of the same experiment. Just check it out via Google maps. If only we could zoom in more we’d be able to see more of the action.
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