The thing is, the tuber never fights back. The energy expended on a fruit/mushroom/tuber/plant hunt is predictable, manageable, and can be expended by a large g

The thing is, the tuber never fights back. The energy expended on a fruit/mushroom/tuber/plant hunt is predictable, manageable, and can be expended by a large group. Only fit, trained hunters can reliably bring down an animal capable of feeding 100 people, and even then some of them are going to be injured or killed at some point. There's a reason that a lot of hunting and trapping involves fairly small animals, rather than megafauna; when you're netting birds for example the worst thing that happens is you miss. Fishing is great, if you live near bodies of water with lots of fish in them. Coastal communities probably did eat a LOT of fish for much of human history, but only so many fish come up to the coast. Fishing gear is also a bitch to build and maintain by hand, in cultures that still do it making new nets and repairing old ones is a full time job for at least one member of each family. Animal protein also requires prompt preservation or eating, whereas a bunch of yams, cassava and so on can be reliably kept for a very long time.