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[-] rtxn@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I propose that we bisect his body head to taint, feed one half to a whale, feed the other to a llama, and see which one becomes a semi-trillionaire. Don't @ me, there are literally no flaws in my method.

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 year ago

This belongs on WhalePeopleTwitter

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago
[-] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Nearly every herbivore will eat meat if it can. They just aren’t evolved to be good at catching live things. But meat is much better nutritionally than plants, so they go for it when they can.

If you spend enough time around farms, you’ll see cows eating young chickens or small birds that get too close, if you leave meat lures for animals, deer are often the first that show up to eat it, etc.

[-] OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago

This is blowing my mind. I didn't think their stomachs were equipped.

[-] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Meat is actually much much easier to break down than plant material. It’s mostly soft-walled structures, where plants have hard cell walls that need to be broken down with special processes to get the goodies out.

As a result, plant material requires multiple processing steps (chewing cud like cows and other ruminant animals, consuming first-pass fecal matter like rabbits, etc.), and then basically ferments using bacteria to break down the cell walls, so they have special adaptations to accommodate all that extra processing, like the multi-chamber stomachs, large cecum, etc.

Meat, on the other hand, is relatively simple to break down, so obligate carnivores actually have much shorter, simpler, intestinal paths. Omnivores are, as you might expect, in between, with digestive systems more complex and longer than carnivores, but shorter and simpler than herbivores.

Thus, nearly every animal is capable of digesting meat (all, afaik, but I’m not certain so I’ll stick with this), but not every animal is capable of digesting plants.

Here’s some fun links with more info :)

https://slate.com/technology/2012/11/deer-eat-meat-herbivores-and-carnivores-are-not-so-clearly-divided.html

https://www.popsci.com/5-disturbing-meat-loving-herbivores/

Edit to fix second link. Whoops.

[-] whykayteejay@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 year ago

Occasionally their tummies get a grumbling that only hands can satisfy.

[-] ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

What's wrong with them?!

[-] nyctre@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

If you mince him and spread it around its actual food? Might eat him that way?

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I tried to trick my cat into eating her kidney medication.

this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2024
587 points (98.4% liked)

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