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Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

nationalpost.com

41–50 of 69 posts

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#41

Humans generally do the same when they’re starving.

Fortunately humans always have a choice and don't function by strict instinct: https://www.amusingplanet.com/2018/08/the-scientists-who-sta...

Always ... except for those who are lost at sea, or are victims of wilderness plane crashes, of course. And then there's vengeance, but I digress...

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#42

On 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.

There are significant anatomical differences between herbivores and carnivores. Their digestive systems are specialized to processing either animal or plant based protein and fiber more efficiently. Herbivore teeth differe greatly from carnivore teeth and are specialized for grinding where as carnivore teeth tend to be specialized towards biting and tearing. Humans are omnivores. Like Black bears, raccoons etc. Our d…

Not so good at processing plant fiber though.

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#43
post #32

Earlier 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...

There's a few countries that are on there multiple times (like Mexico and New Zealand). How does that work?

They're so fat that they had to buy extra tickets.

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#44
OT - 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

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#45

Humans generally do the same when they’re starving.

Great Stephen King short story: https://outline.com/Cs8Xjw

Survivor type is incredible. One of those Stephen King stories that sounds great even in outline; but the story, as one would expect from that author, is just beautiful.

"I laughed at him. If this place isn't hell, what is? And the only mortal sin is giving up."

Beautiful. But the transcription you linked isn't great; it's collected in "skeleton crew" available in paperback or on the kindle.

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#46
post #32

Earlier 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.

Maori make up just 15% of the NZ population. They do however have more obese despite fewer who are only moderately overweight. Since the BMI ranking is by arithmetic mean, extremely fat people will have an outsize effect.

Ref: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health...

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food security for humans was first achieved by the US around 1800.

It's unfortunate you're being downvoted, because you are broadly correct. The US was the first country to achieve a sustained, structural food surplus nationally. By 1920 it was saving millions of Russians from starvation via its immense food surplus. Millions of Europeans fled their homes over decades to come to the US because of food scarcity and starvation back home. During most of the 19th century starvation was…

You can also see this in height statistics - US heights increased steadily from 1800-1900.

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#48
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great Stephen King short story: https://outline.com/Cs8Xjw

Survivor type is incredible. One of those Stephen King stories that sounds great even in outline; but the story, as one would expect from that author, is just beautiful. "I laughed at him. If this place isn't hell, what is? And the only mortal sin is giving up." Beautiful. But the transcription you linked isn't great; it's collected in "skeleton crew" available in paperback or on the kindle.

Yeah, I didn’t want to link directly to a PDF of it.

Outline.com seems to be the HN-endorsed site for copyright infringement.

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#49

On 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.

There are significant anatomical differences between herbivores and carnivores. Their digestive systems are specialized to processing either animal or plant based protein and fiber more efficiently. Herbivore teeth differe greatly from carnivore teeth and are specialized for grinding where as carnivore teeth tend to be specialized towards biting and tearing. Humans are omnivores. Like Black bears, raccoons etc. Our d…

Maybe the recent discoveries outlined in this article show that maybe there is no exclusive herbivore digestive system among most land based mammals.

Re: Snowshoe hares found to routinely feast on their own dead

#50
I had a traumatic experience as a child. My family went to visit some friends. They thought my brother and I would like to see their new baby rabbits. We were sent out to the backyard on our own. When we got to the cage all the babies were dead. The adult rabbits had chewed off their heads. I'm now 42 and I can still see the bloody baby rabbit carcasses.
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