To be fair, it's not just western. But there is more of a spotlight on the west.
The Universe 25 Experiment, also known as the mice utopia experiment, was conducted in the late 1960s and early 70s.
The experiment built a utopian habitat for mice in which all their needs were met – there were no predators, the place was regularly cleaned, they had play areas, abundant food, nesting areas etc.
The habitat capacity was about 4000 mice, though they never reached that number. After hitting a population of a little over 2000, something strange happened; seemingly overnight.
Many mice became aggressive, fighting/killing for no reason. There was some cannibalism, even though food was available.
Some males self-isolated. They didn't socialize or mate. They just groomed themselves.
Some females self-isolated, coming out of their nesting areas only to feed.
Mothers started to neglect their young, resulting in very high infant mortality.
About 3 years after the experiment began, the last mouse baby died. They went extinct.
50 years later, no one has figured out how and why this happened.
This experiment was repeated with rats and had the same result. Repeated once again with mice; this time the mice were electronically tagged and sensors were placed in the habitat to record movement behavior. The researchers were looking for clues and signs of anything that might allude to a cause. Nothing was found, the shift literally happens overnight…
The best guess so far is overcrowding. High density habitats results in self destructive behavior. Even though the habitat never got close to it's 4000 mice capacity.
Here is a short video on this experiment. There are hours long comprehensive videos too, as the experiment is well known.
It is possible that what is happening to us is similar to this phenomenon. Mothers neglecting their young? Or worse, killing their young?
We may be about to go extinct. And we haven't figured out how and why.
Posted by WankerOnDuty