[KimS]

Well, I'm sure you all know, by now, how fascinated I was to find out that my chickens are actually omnivores who often show a preference for meat... and since doing more research on them it does seem to make sense...

well........

I'm finding out things about cows now too......!!!

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_i...3533 2280M341

Local television pictures showed the cow grabbing and eating a chicken in seconds and a vet confirmed the case.

[myst]

Ok, that's just plain weird! Cows are herbivores by nature (except for the bugs in the grass, I suppose) - their digestive systems are set up for that purpose (er, so I thought). I want to say more, but my brain is having a hard time wrapping around this.

[Mrs. Bear]

I read about this the other day. Very odd.

But I watched a special on Discovery about a species of Deer on some remote and barren island that eat the birds when they flock there for mating season.

Scientists believe it is a survival response for malnutrition.

But very, very disturbing.

[pabb]

this may qualify as TMI, but cows, and i would think wild bovines, eat their own after birth, so their digestive systems can handle it.......

[KimS]

Of course!! And if not the young... then they definitely clean off all the gunk that they're born in (sac, etc.)

There's that 'aha'!

Thanks pabb.

Cows are herbivores by nature

They used to say that about hippos too though... and then later found out that hippos actually eat a fair bit of meat... so that's why when I read the article about the cow, I thought... Why not?

It really does make more sense that we are all, more and less, scavengers that eat what we come across in the act of survival. It makes for a cleaner planet too. Earth is cool!

[Electra]

Originally Posted by Mrs. Bear

Scientists believe it is a survival response for malnutrition.
:

This makes sense in a way. We already know that our crops are depleating the soil so much that fresh veggies are not as vitamin packed as they should be from nature. Farmers use chemical fertilizers instead of God way of crop rotation and land rest.

So, if the grass were not as nutritionally dense as it should be, it would make sense that cows are searching for other things to fill the void.

[northernlights]

I read an article once about sheep in Norway eating the wings off small bird chicks on an island. The scientists were baffeled, but then the sheep stopped doing that after they got a salt stone to lick on....
Alo, I heard about a certain horse living on Bear Island before ww2, and the horse mainly ate meat, seal meat. Ehen they were hunting seal, the first one to arrive at dthe sot seal was the horse.
Bear island is in the arctic and presenlty there is a small weather station there at the same place. They might have a website I I have not checked...

nora