I bet you thought that cows and deer were vegetarians. You were wrong.

Note: If you dislike seeing cute things being eaten, this will make you sad.

It’s perhaps not as well known as it should be that many ‘strict herbivores’ will eat animal matter on occasion. Sometimes this behaviour is absolutely deliberate and likely motivated by a need for calcium: antler- and bone-eating is common in deer and other hoofed mammals, and the consumption of seabird chick heads, wings and legs by island-dwelling deer and sheep is well documented (Furness 1988). Red deer Cervus elaphus that eat seabirds seem to deliberately eat the bones only, and carefully avoid ingesting the flesh. White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus and domestic cattle Bos taurus have been shown (thanks again to remote cameras) to consume passerine and quail nestlings and/or eggs when they discover them (Pietz & Granfors 2000, Nack & Ribic 2005, Ellis-Felege et al. 2008): this behaviour is likely opportunistic, but may well be common and widespread (it’s difficult to document since it mostly occurs at night and no evidence remains).

Read the rest of the truly fascinating post by Darren Naish (who also knows quite a bit about Godzilla) at Tetrapod Zoology.

Originally posted Dec 21, 2010