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Squirrels hunting and eating meat
- pfdietz 2y agoI understand chipmunks will bite the tops off the skulls of baby birds so they can eat the brains.
- zmj 2y agoEverything is an opportunistic carnivore. I once came across a turtle chowing down on a dead frog.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoApparently cows are happy to eat nestlings if they happen to find a bird's nest while they're grazing. If you're an animal, there's no food better than meat.
- BadHumans 2y agoEverything will eat anything if its hungry enough but to say there is no better food is a broad statement I'm not comfortable agreeing with.
- nradov 2y ago"Better" is kind of a vague term. A more precise and limited statement is that meat has the highest protein quality index. There could be some other disadvantages, depending on your species.
- scns 2y agoHorses snacking chicks. Videos easy to be found.
- manquer 2y agoThat would only be true if you have the stomach biome to digest and extract the nutrients. What is the point of eating something that is hard to process and digest and has no nutritional value for you For herbivores, meat is objectively bad food .
- WorkerBee28474 2y agoYou're wrong. Cows will eat meat, horses will eat meat, pigs will eat meat, chickens will eat meat, deer will eat meat. If they can get it in their mouth, they will eat it.
- lostlogin 2y agoMad cow disease didn’t just happen. Though the idea that cows would preferentially eat brain and spinal cord tissue doesn’t seem likely.
- jiggawatts 2y agoIronically mad cow is one of the rare transmissible diseases that “can just happen” with no external causative agent! It’s just a misfolding of a protein that starts a chain reaction of similarly misfolded proteins.
- manquer 2y agoAnything can any thing , that is not what I said . OP implied they like it if they can get it, and is the better food for them , that is not true
- thaumasiotes 2y agoIt is true. If you prefer grass to birds, you can just go around the birds as you find them. The grass isn't going anywhere.
- hulitu 2y ago> pigs will eat meat, chickens will eat meat, pigs and chicken are omnivorous.
- lacy_tinpot 2y agoYou should try raising cows on a carnivore diet.
- thaumasiotes 2y agoThe cows would be happy, but that would be significantly more expensive than feeding them plants. Note that mad cow disease came from feeding cows to cows. Giving them meat isn't exactly an innovation.
- lostlogin 2y ago> Giving them meat isn't exactly an innovation. True, but the results were.
- lacy_tinpot 2y agoIt's as deluded as raising cats on a vegan diet.
- m463 2y agoLook, that rabbit's got a vicious streak a mile wide! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog
- aeonik 2y agoEven trees will take nutrients from animals with a little help from fungal networks: https://web.uvic.ca/~reimlab/salmonforest.html https://web.uvic.ca/~reimlab/salmonforest.html https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/pal/salmon-dna-in-trees/ https://depts.washington.edu/hortlib/pal/salmon-dna-in-trees... (note, Salmon DNA isn't in the trees, just nutrients, in case you don't read this article).
- RajT88 2y agoTurtles are carnivores, no? They are bitey as hell. All of them. You catch them on cut bait, worms, minnows when fishing. Even the ones without very sharp mouths, like softshell turtles.
- MrMcCall 2y ago> along with Sonja Wild of UC Davis, who also contributed to the study I love me some nominative determinism.
- c22 2y agoProbably about 20 years ago, near Boston, I remember noticing a reddish-brown squirrel sitting in a tree gnawing on a fried chicken leg and found the sight mildly absurd.
- noduerme 2y agoThat must've been Colonel Scampers.
- letmedang 2y ago[flagged]
- sandworm101 2y agoPizza rat is going to pizza. The most successful animals are generally those that will take calories from anywhere they can, with things like pandas and koalas at the other end of the spectrum.
- zeofig 2y agoI knew it.
- RajT88 2y agoI was typing the same thing when I saw this comment. I am not at all shocked squirrels are vicious killers.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Loughla 2y agoAt my parents house, the squirrels often kill and eat bluejays. I'm the winter they hide the wings in snow drifts. When the spring thaw comes there will be dozens of disembodied bird wings scattered around the yard. I thought it was common knowledge that squirrels are opportunistic. They're rodents. They eat whatever they can get.
- echelon 2y agoI've always known squirrels to eat birds. The fact that scientists are new to this fact is what is surprising. It might just be that the headline is bad and the literature is simply describing vole predation. Anecdata: https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/2bypwd/i_saw_a_gray_squirrel_eating_a_bird_how_common_is/ https://www.reddit.com/r/zoology/comments/2bypwd/i_saw_a_gra... https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1d1ddnv/birdhouses_baby_birds_and_squirrels_are_squirrels/ https://www.reddit.com/r/birding/comments/1d1ddnv/birdhouses... https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/14715zj/squirrel_eating_bird/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/14715zj/squirrel_eatin... (graphic video) https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/dsws02/a_squirrel_eating_the_head_of_a_sparrow/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/dsws02/a_squirrel_eati... (different graphic video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9F-lnJtkDA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9F-lnJtkDA (graphic video eating a mouse) etc. The really graphic stuff you tend to see when you look for it is the raptors eating the squirrels. Bird eats squirrel eats bird. The circle of life.
- salynchnew 2y ago> It might just be that the headline is bad and the literature is simply describing vole predation. Correct! From the article: > Any supplementation of their vegetarian diet was historically believed to primarily occur through eating insects or, on occasion, nest predation of eggs or young hatchlings (Bradley and Marzluff 2003). > Roughly 30 years ago, Callahan (1993) radically altered our perception of squirrels by characterizing as many as 30 species of the family Sciuridae as facultative predators of small vertebrates capable of killing and consuming adult fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals (Table S1). The study is itself a detailed breakdown of changes in foraging behavior linkedin to "food pulses" (which I guess means the times when various food sources are available, a la acorns in the fall and sprouts in the spring).
- estebarb 2y agoAt the university squirrels regularly stole our pizzas ( see https://imgur.com/gallery/HBLFoNA https://imgur.com/gallery/HBLFoNA ). At my house, they also took avocados.
- loudandskittish 2y ago...something happened. Growing up, I had cats that ate squirrels. Then, sometime around the early 2000s, I had cats that were being chased by squirrels.
- noduerme 2y agoMy ex's cat spent a lot of time outdoors and in the barn, and picked up the "chit-chit-chit" noise that angry squirrels make. The cat does it every time she's annoyed.
- xeonmc 2y agoFor a realistic fictional portrayal of this observation, see Tooth And Tail[0] [0] https://store.steampowered.com/app/286000/Tooth_and_Tail/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/286000/Tooth_and_Tail/
- pvaldes 2y ago[flagged]