Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Your feeling as far as I can tell is incorrect. Chickens and Ducks are both birds (class Aves) but of different orders. They are as different as two birds can be and still be birds. Similarly, lions and antelope are of different orders, as are humans and cows, yet they are of the same class i.e. they are all mammals.
Now it's possible that a compar ...[text shortened]... hat you feel, but taxonomy these days is based on genetic analysis I believe so it's unlikely.
At any rate, the online Oxford English Dictionary (www.oed.com) defines cannibal as 'An animal that preys on its own species'. Since chickens and ducks are different species, chickens do not become cannibals by eating ducks (or vice versa)...
