The surprising images suggest animals aren't so easily classified as herbivores or carnivores-and that snowshoe hares are eating meat on a regular basis. Instead, two-and-a-half years of footage revealed hares ate from 20 of 161 carcasses observed. He expected predators to drop in and pick at the free offerings. Peers discovered meat-eating hares by accident, after setting up remote trail cameras next to hare carcasses near Mount St. “It was shocking to see the first time,” says Peers, who believes the hares are boosting their protein intake during harsh times. candidate in ecology at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, who led a new study on the phenomenon in Bio One Complete. (See " Friends For Dinner: Why Some Animals Become Cannibals.")Īnd, in an ironic twist on natural selection, hares also dine on dead Canada lynx-their main predator, says Michael Peers, a Ph.D. Snowshoe hares in Canada’s Yukon Territory eat meat to supplement their diets during long winters in one of the coldest places on Earth.ĭuring summer months, the mammals feed on vegetation, but when snow blankets the landscape and temperatures plunge to 30 below, hungry hares scavenge other hare carcasses, as well as several species of birds. Come to think of it, this was pretty much the same reason why I started eating meat after growing up as a vegetarian.Your fluffy pet bunny's cousin is actually a carnivore-and a cannibal, new photographs reveal for the first time. She smelled a steak cooking, she wanted to eat it, and it wound up in her mouth. She didn’t know about differing levels of protein, iron, or salt. The hungry doe that I met at the campground certainly had no idea about any of this evolution business. ![]() A flexible diet makes an animal more adaptable and more likely to survive than a fully-committed herbivore. They probably ate a lot of meat in the past, their descendants will eventually do so again, and meanwhile they indulge every so often when nobody seems to be paying attention. Much like many college students I’ve known, the species we think of as herbivores may only be passing through a phase. These iconic herbivores have a lot of flesh-eating in their past. Hippo ancestors split off from cetaceans about 60 million years ago-yes, whales and dolphins are their close kin-had teeth that suggest an omnivorous diet as well. ![]() Early forms of deer about 30 million years ago are thought to have eaten large amounts of grubs, insects, baby birds, eggs, and small mammals in addition to plant matter. When we look at the evolutionary histories of some of these herbivores, we find even more omnivorous behavior in their past. Consuming meat from time to time may be a way for a species to maintain an option on carnivory, which may be the difference between extinction and survival in an emergency. For example, a prolonged drought may cause many herbivores to weaken and die, creating a scavenging opportunity for the survivors. The koala’s strategy works only for as long as there are eucalyptus leaves to eat, whereas raccoons will probably be around long after koalas (currently listed as a threatened species) are extinct.Ī herbivore that is willing to occasionally eat meat has the potential to either exploit an available niche as a predator, or to survive a brief period of starvation by eating meat when plants are scarce. Koalas are a good example of a specialist species, feeding entirely on the leaves of eucalyptus trees. Specialists, on the other hand, tend to exploit one niche very thoroughly and may be able to dominate it for as long as it exists. Generalists, such as raccoons and pigs, can survive in a variety of habitats and climates and can utilize many different food sources.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |