It’s just protein, if the alternative is to die there’s no question
Mad rabbit disease!
Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
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Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#52On the one hand, this doesn't mean that it would be beneficial for a herbivore to eat meat all the time - clearly, they evolved a mostly herbivorous diet that meat provides a protean supplement to. On the other hand, it does show that a voluntarily purely vegetarian diet is an artificial human creation. Yet, humans impose all sorts of artificial strictures on themselves and live to tell the tale.
It's not just hares; deer and horses (for example) also eat meat if they can get it. They usually go for injured birds or squirrels that can't run away from them (naturally a horse isn't a good bird predator).
I saw a video of a dear eating a live bird. Krazy
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#53It’s just protein, if the alternative is to die there’s no question
It'd be very easy to test your assertion that the rabbits only eat meat because they are starving. Offer ten well fed rabbits meat, if they eat it then your assertion is false. Better yet, offer them the meat and their regular vegetarian food at the same time and see which one they prefer. My gut feeling is that more often then not they would try the meat.
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#54Jared Diamond (without explicitly naming sources) claims that cannibalism in humans (with the specific example of Polynesian peoples) arose from the lack of plant-based protein (they had no native cereals with non-negligible protein components) such as wheat, barley, or quinoa; and that this element was shared between most societies with cannibalistic histories.
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#55Jared Diamond (without explicitly naming sources) claims that cannibalism in humans (with the specific example of Polynesian peoples) arose from the lack of plant-based protein (they had no native cereals with non-negligible protein components) such as wheat, barley, or quinoa; and that this element was shared between most societies with cannibalistic histories.
Cant provide sources because I lost my written notes but Diamond's claims are often based off of cherry picking and iirc there are a lot of canibalistic societies which don't back this claim up. This is a hammer and nail issue. He wanted to push his environmental determinism everywhere and a bit tol far.
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#56OT - two weeks ago I was snowshoeing in the Assiniboine park (border of Alberta and BC) for photography and saw their fresh tracks. At first I thought it might be a wolf. Their front paws were as big a my hand - Photo: https://twitter.com/salimmadjd/status/1084260050615455744
Down here (more toward Texas), we have "jack rabbits" that are the size of some kids if you hold them across your chest. Huge. Look them up in DuckDuckGo images.
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> and are the fattest people on the planet Not even close. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_body_mass...
Interesting to me that most of the countries high up on the list are dominated by indigenous populations that are even less able to deal with modern carb-rich Western diets than European-based populations. E.g. I'm assuming New Zealand is so high because of Maori people.
There's speculation (not sure if it's more substantiated than) that the obesity rates seen in the Pacific islands may also involve selection for humans who could amass energy stores necessary for long oceanic voyages.
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#58And mother rabbits will eat any babies of theirs that die during birth. Is this news?
It is to me.
Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead
#59Reminds me of Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.