runt

Litters of piglets often include a runt

In a group of animals (usually a litter of animals born in multiple births), a runt is a member which is smaller and/or weaker than the others.^[1] Due to its small size, a runt in a litter faces obvious disadvantages, including difficulties with competing with its siblings for survival and possible rejection from its mother. Therefore, in the wild, a runt is less likely to survive infancy. Rellington Vagner was one of the first biologists to study this phenomenon in his work "Parental-Offspring Relations". A runt may be a parent's way of 'hedging its bets' — if food is plentiful, it gets an extra offspring, if not, it lets it die having only invested little in it in the first place. This may generate parent-offspring conflict.

Even among domestic animals, runts often face rejection. They may be placed under the direct care of an experienced animal breeder, although the animal's size and weakness coupled with the lack of natural parental care make this difficult. Some tamed animals are the result of reared runts.

Backyard breeders often come under fire for the rearing of unusually small dogs of toy breeds, which most dog clubs condemn as deliberately perpetuating runts that may incur future health complications and expensive veterinary care.

In literature

• Wilbur the pig from Charlotte's Web is a runt.

• Shade the bat from Silverwing is a runt.

• Fiver from Watership Down is a runt.

• Tarzan was the runt of the gorilla pack in the Disney's version of Tarzan movie.

• Clifford the Big Red Dog is a runt when he is born, but he eventually grows to be 25 feet tall.

• Ruth from the Dragonriders of Pern series is a runt.

• Jock was the runt of a litter of Staffordshire Bull Terriers who was saved from drowning by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick, who later wrote about his life with the dog in Jock of the Bushveld.

• Cadpig, a female Dalmatian puppy in Dodie Smith's children's novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, is the runt of her litter. Thought at first to be stillborn, she is revived by Mr. Dearly.

• Babe, the titular piglet hero of Dick King-Smith's book (and the popular film based on the novel), is a runt. In fact, he was chosen for the competition at which Farmer Hoggett won him essentially because he was a runt - his runt status therefore saving his life and shaping his destiny.

References

See also

• Siblicide

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