Why Don't We Eat Carnivores?

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Humans eat a lot of different animals, but almost none of them are carnivores - why?
LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Biomagnification: the process by which substances (usually harmful ones) in the natural environment gradually increase in concentration along the food chain
- Trophic level: A level or position in a food chain, a food web, or an ecological pyramid.
- Herbivore: an organism that mostly feeds on plants
- Omnivore: an organism that feeds on plants and animals
- Carnivore: an organism that eats exclusively - or almost exclusively - animals.
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CREDITS
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Kate Yoshida | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Arcadi Garcia i Rius & Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
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REFERENCES
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Han BA, Kramer AM, Drake JM. Global Patterns of Zoonotic Disease in Mammals. Trends Parasitol. 2016 Jul;32(7):565-577. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2016.04.00
Leroy F, Smith NW, Adesogan AT, Beal T, Iannotti L, Moughan PJ, Mann N. The role of meat in the human diet: evolutionary aspects and nutritional value. Anim Front. 2023 Apr 15;13(2):11-18. doi: 10.1093/af/vfac093
Kim SW, Han SJ, Kim Y, Jun JW, Giri SS, Chi C, et al. (2019) Heavy metal accumulation in and food safety of shark meat from Jeju island, Republic of Korea. PLoS ONE 14(3): e0212410. doi: /10.1371/journal.pone.0212410
Koster JM, Hodgen JJ, Venegas MD et al. (2010) Is Meat Flavor a Factor in Hunters’ Prey Choice Decisions?. Hum Nat 21, 219-242. doi: 10.1007/s12110-010-9093-1

[@MinuteEarth]

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[@GamerDuDimanche1456]

I have a question for the team, did you use a text to speech gpt to do the ad read at the end ? It sounds different from the rest of the video?

[@sarahjberman]

@@GamerDuDimanche1456 hi! editor here. no AI was used - all Kate as always, just a different take edited differently than the main portion. Apologies for the uncanniness in the transition :)

[@CoveQuackers]

Watch ordinary sausage too if you wanna see more

[@bbgun061]

I've read that early American settlers would eat anything they could hunt. (The flavor varied greatly.) It's likely that most people living in wilderness areas throughout history did the same. But once most of the carnivores have been hunted, all that's left are the herbivores. (And with no predators, their population increases.) It's much easier to domesticate herbivores. Now why not just eat the plants instead? The reason is that most livestock eat plants that humans can't eat.

[@dahawk8574]

3:53 - I would like to see a video on us eating the plants directly. That would be wonderful.

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

CGP Grey summarized it best: "Ten pounds of grass make a pound of cow, and ten pounds of cow make a pound of tiger. But cow and tiger have the same amount of calories, so you might as well just eat the cow."

[@ArpanDe]

Might as well eat dirt 🗣️🗣️🔥🔥🥶🥶🤢🤢

[@NickWrightDataYT]

But Kate also made a good point--if humans just ate the grass (really grain/corn), it'd be even more efficient!

[@martinketchum]

​@@NickWrightDataYT good thing we are now cows

[@matthewboyd8689]

Hence why veganism would cost less if it weren't for the subsidies provided to the meat industry And having 1/10 as much farmland would mean 1/10 as much chemical runoff, also fixing the problem of the Dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

[@davidegaruti2582]

​@@NickWrightDataYTthe logic of veganism ... We already use soy to grow cattles so why not eat soy ?

[@lonelyPorterCH]

I could think of many things: - their diet is too expensive - you cannot herd them - they might attack you - they are probably territorial, no chance of having lots of them in a small area

[@duran9664]

❌ WRONG❌WRONG❌WRONG❌ People eat what easy to hunt & control🤷‍♀️ We would have eat each other if it easy to hunt humans, control them & eat them🤏

[@AiNaKa]

@@duran9664 they literally just said that they're not easy to hunt or control so how is it wrong

[@harthroth]

​@@AiNaKait's a bot dawg

[@jackychen7769]

@@harthroth it does seem to be a bot, but it's a bit weird how its comment is tailored to the video

[@simonPARK-lv8fi]

​@harthroth Maybe not, it's related to the vid... probably just a person?

[@pra8k]

You missed the basic point, carnivores usually reproduce at lower numbers and lower frequency than herbivores. It is easier to extinct tigers than sheep.

[@elkoku2002]

That's not true, cows born one by one, tigers have a litter of 3 or more cubs per season, the problem is that adult tigers do not coexist peacefully.

[@The_Gallowglass]

I think we also have an unspoken alliance with carnivores--or better put---hunters. We respect them. As long as they don't bother us we don't bother them (mostly). That and they're a lot more clever than herbivores.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@Javier64691]

I don’t think that’s really a point since companies would just overproduce to compensate for the lower frequency. It’s most likely a bunch of those reasons to make the whole picture.

[@dm3280]

Yeah, it's already obvious. Why would early humans go for a single dangerous tiger that will literally turn you into its prey, rather than a herd of sheep that's easier to catch. And pretty sure the big boys won't easily get swayed like the early dogs.

[@thefourleafclover5316]

Hearing her say nasties is just so weird. Btw for reference the process she mention is called bio accumulation.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@PKmuffdiver]

Indeed

[@nemesis8131]

@@VeganSemihCyprus33 Ok, I do.

[@fretzT_T]

​@@VeganSemihCyprus33I'm vegetarian but I don't cry like a bitch when someone eat meat. Grow up. Take your vit B12 supplements your brain is weakening

[@theblurryblackcat]

I liked it

[@RustedCrown11]

i find it really funny you use an aligator in a farm as an example of "we don't farm carnivores" when infact we litterally have aligator farms for their meat in Louisiana

[@TrainerGoldAlt]

thats mostly for their skin right?

[@klungar]

@@TrainerGoldAlt I've eaten gator on multiple occasions, in restaurants and otherwise. It's definitely a bit of an outlier here.

[@xToddmcx]

I noticed that but I don't think you can argue that it's common or makes up a significant portion of human eaten meat.

[@prasetyodwikuncorojati2434]

@@TrainerGoldAlt but the meat rather than ended in dump, better consumed by anyone who wants to taste it

[@RustedCrown11]

@@TrainerGoldAlt for the skin and the meat, the meat is like a really good cross between fish and chicken

[@AM-uk7jv]

Conversely for seafood, we humans predominantly eat carnivorous fish, while we rarely eat herbivorous fish. Herbivore fish taste like the plants they eat. Which isn't good.

[@xenomorphbiologist-xx1214]

I think the reason why is because there aren’t that many of them and they aren’t very large either. Whereas Tuna, Salmon, etc can get pretty large, taste good and because we don’t farm them, we don’t have to pump resources into them

[@davidegaruti2582]

Oceanic food webs just operate on another level

[@Merennulli]

It's not about taste. There just aren't very many, they're not particularly big, and they have a significant risk of being toxic. People eat them anyway, but it's not common because it's not efficient.

[@freerolll]

What about sardines and shrimp.

[@Merennulli]

@@freerolll I think the specific species (plural) of shrimp are carnivorous, but you are right about sardines being omnivores.

[@maheshwarannarayanan]

Back in the old days, carnivores were harder to hunt and the reward to risk ratio was not worth it, in the present times, it is very difficult and inefficient to grow carnivores for food, so it is highly practical to eat herbivores

[@tackytaco8133]

There was nothing harder to hunt for humans, like carnivorous fish example was given.

[@hansvonmannschaft9062]

@@tackytaco8133 What? Oh lord... "nothing harder to hunt", sure, a grazing deer or cow ancestor would've been just as trivial to hunt as a sabertooth tiger. /facepalm. Oh BUT WAIT! - Gets better: the fantastic counterargument is that we've hunted (and still do)... carnivorous fish! Argh... I just felt millions of braincells shouting in pain...

[@cyberyousef7519]

No its because allah made it haram for us to eat them

[@Badpoison1]

I've had lion burgers, bear jerky, grilled shark, and snake every way you can think to cook it.

[@paloma_oni]

Well.....how they taste?

[@billmccullough777]

Those taste good.Lots of bear recipes available. Bear roast is delicious. Pay attention to meat temperature!

[@Badpoison1]

@@paloma_oni unremarkable surprisingly enough

[@randomperson4198]

​​​@@paloma_onii don't know about the ones they mentioned but i tasted crocodile i think?or is it alligator whatever it is.It taste like fish but has hardness as chicken or the other way round i forgot. My family got it as a souvenir and I'd say they taste alright so the we So it's definitely not because of taste. Maybe combination - efficiency - stigma - safety

[@ommin202]

For most of human history, eating a carnivore would've just been HARD. Why fight a bear for it's meat when you could hunt a deer, where you'd be less likely to get injured and die? Then as a course, we'd never develop the taste/immune system/etc. for eating predators.

[@user-yj8mh1uk8r]

Also - there might be 20 or more deer for each wolf in the neighbourhood, so it's much easier to hunt the deer.

[@adolfhipsteryolocaust3443]

Actually hunting is the only reliable way to eat carmnivores and we have proof than ancient humans regurarly ate carnivores

[@katokianimation]

Most bears are omnivores but the point is still valid.

[@runronnierun7213]

I think the first part of what of what you said is correct. I don't know about the taste/ immune system part. It makes sense that herd animals would be the choice to hunt over more solitary animals, which is also why we eat fish that are predators, as they tend to swim in schools. It's about calories per effort. The Native Americans knew it was much more cost effective to herd a group of buffalo over a cliff than to hunt down solitary predators.

[@defeqel6537]

isotope analysis suggests that we ate other carnivores too

[@RafaelSilva-ew2gt]

You are not even considering that hunting a deer is significantly easier than hunting a cougar

[@avu2888]

idk man, there's like 4 in my dms promising a weekly allowance of $1000, as long as I send my bank details first

[@foxx1275]

Right alongside the idea that they would be less safe to eat this is what occurred to me first. When you hunt a deer, rabbit or whatnot, you are the predator, and they are the prey trying to get away from you. With a carnivore, you are both hunters, and it becomes a much more dangerous game.

[@ronald3836]

I'm hunting cougars at the moment in Red Dead Redemption 2 and can confirm.

[@AymenDZA]

Especially when the cougar also considers hunting you just as much !

[@nuklearboysymbiote]

​@@avu2888 LMAO😭😭😭😭

[@M7Teen7]

That one episode from JoJo's Golden Wind where mista discusses cannibalism:

[@dracodracarys2339]

knew there was gonna be a jojo reference here somewhere

[@ryushogun9890]

Shark is good. People eat dogs, snakes and aligators in some regions right? So it cant be toxic to humans.

I'll add another possible reason: humans used to be hunter-gatherers, and hunting a carnivore probably was way too dangerous to be worth the effort

[@komiks42]

Yea. I assume if they killed it in defense, they might eat it but hunting to eat it? Dangerous

[@akbarkhan-nq3xl]

I wouldn't be so sure on that hypothesis as a discovery was made in Africa in Kenya or Tanzania that homo erectus regularly hunted carnivorous in that area for food

[@AintNoFossil]

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of when I saw the thumbnail, but I'm appalled that an evolutionary perspective wasn't considered in the video.

[@cj-seejay-cj-seejay]

Yes, I thought of this, too. Especially since it also explains why we would have an exception for carnivorous fish: fish generally aren't as dangerous as carnivorous land animals.

[@LinebaKKer]

This was my idea

[@skylergarza8371]

"We don't eat carnivores" *looks at my bowl of alligator gumbo*

[@DeadjokeIknow]

It's probably more efficient to eat alligator compared to other carnivores because unlike warm blooded animals that turn only 10 percent of food into mass and the rest into heat and energy the alligator turns about 70 percent into mass and relays on the sun for heat

[@ahassan5]

We are not in China

[@yektaagra741]

@@ahassan5 its also a delicacy in Australia i believe. They say it tastes like chicken and the tail has a pretty good texture Edit: Turns out there are crocodiles in Australia, not alligators

[@itsov5033]

Was just finna say that. Like- I'm definitely eating fried gator

[@Labyrinth6000]

Fried gator = Mmm

[@fabiobeka]

I'm no expert but hunting or herding tigers seems a lot harder then hunting or herding rabbits.

[@glucmaster3187]

Its probably just because hunting them before modern technology was so dangerous we just didn't bother

[@Krypto137]

A point about the inefficiency of cows, though, which I think is important to point out Historically, raising cattle (not just cows but sheep and goats too) was done in areas where it was hard to grow crops, but where grass grew readily. Humans can't eat grass, so it was an easy way to turn inedible calories into edible ones. It didn't matter that it took 10000 calories of grass to make 1000 calories of cow because those 10000 calories of grass were useless to us. It wasn't that different from the fish example. Then we started growing crops to feed the cattle tho, which kind of defeats the purpose of having the cattle in the first place. But originally at least, it made perfect sense.

[@Aronsr2004]

another point is that our digestion systems are significantly less adapted for grass than a cow is, so regardless of how many calories exist in grass we can't directly benefit from it without farming animals who do have digestion systems capable of digesting said grass.

[@Croz89]

Even now, it *sort* of does. Some percentage of a harvest of say, wheat is usually pretty poor quality, you might eat it if you were starving and it would be pretty horrible (it would probably be grits or porridge because the protein content is too low for bread or pasta), but in an otherwise abundant food environment, it's going to go to waste. There are also fodder crops like alfalfa that grow more readily in poor soil but are also not very nutritious for humans. Finally there's waste products from the food industry like sugar beet pulp or molasses. Not to say high quality human edible grains are not fed to cattle sometimes, especially in the US where it is extremely cheap to produce, but there's still a lot of sources of animal feed which could not be easily diverted for human use.

[@4124V4TA-SNPCA-x]

Just like you said. Additionally, for millions of years of human history and teens of thousands of years of history, animals and land was plentiful until very very recently. Herbivores were pests in agricultural areas, especially after dangerous carnivore threats/competitors were eliminated. So hunting deer, elk, antelope, horse, rabbit, etc. became a necessity and it still is. And they are delicious and nutritious, and can be excellently paired with plants and drinks.

[@victory8928]

another point is food waste and bad crops and forage. Stuff we gathered that we can’t eat so we feed it to what we can eat

[@BossOfAllTrades]

​​@@Croz89Yea forage cover crops with livestock can actually improve soils in degraded land reversing deserts. Every thing in nature has a purpose but people try demonize livestock ,When we caused more harm through industrial waste. But they wont focus on that part because of all the oil companies

[@JanSenCheng]

I think you kinda missed what's imo the big one: we don't just eat herbivores, we specifically eat ruminants and fowl (and pork, which is also the most common meat, but I'll get back to that), which are animals that eat grass and seeds. Specifically, those are things that human derive little to no nutrition from, but are incredibly abundant. For most of human history (really, all of it prior to the Second Agricultural Revolution), we didn't grow food to feed animals, we just let them graze on otherwise unused grassland or hay, which is effectively a byproduct of the grains we actually eat. As such, they were basically a way of converting inedible plant matter into stuff we can actually eat. Pigs are the big exception to that, in that they don't eat grasses primarily. However, they do eat anything. All of the waste and scraps that get produced by people can be fed to pigs, and they'll also happily find food in an otherwise barren field. Basically, the reason we eat those animals primarily is just because those animals were effectively no-effort food sources at a time when food production was the vast majority of human labour.

[@computo2000]

This comment wins the question.

[@leightongardner7822]

This should get pinned well said. It makes sense that we'd find the most efficient way to satisfy our need for food and what could be easier than eating animals that eat the stuff we don't eat or need makes perfect sense... imagine trying to catch antelope to feed to your leopard so you can eat it 😂😂

[@argentin2306]

The pig is a tricky one though, if you only feed it trash, the meat will taste like trash, unless you fed it good quality food the last few months of it life, making its meat mid quality, but if you fed it with high quality food all its life, you end up with good quality meat (let's ignore for a moment the different breeds and how the environment can influence on the quality)

[@SeventhEve]

Yes, and this points out a very good reason why the religion hypothesis doesn't really hold up: both Judaism and Islam prohibit pork, and yet it is the most consumed meats on the planet. If that were a cultural factor, it would mean western cultures would not eat so much of it.

[@someguy2135]

Since the 2nd Agricultural Revolution, we waste a huge amount of resources like land and fresh water to produce animal products. Animal agriculture is the top cause of deforestation, and biodiversity loss. It is also a major cause of climate change, water pollution, ocean dead zones, and the threat of zoonotic diseases, and antibiotic resistance. It is long past the time to change to a plant based food production system!

[@user-sm7ik8vn4x]

What about because there aren’t as many to hunt/ they’re more risky to hunt but I think the danger of hunting them in the first place is a likely factor that contributes as to why we may not eat many carnivorous animals.

[@rinardis6020]

putting the ad to the end is a W + nice vid overall, deserves a like

[@robertmcauslan6191]

This is more “why we don’t farm carnivores” more so than “why we don’t eat carnivores”. We eat plenty of carnivores but farm very little of them.

[@SiphesihleSihle-tj6vy]

Very good

[@tinachristine4573]

True. We eat crocodile meat.

[@elijahknox4421]

​@@tinachristine4573yeah while watching this video I was thinking, I've had crocodile, everyone with me liked it and the meat was very soft

[@murraykelm5691]

They are farmed ,but for their fur not their meat

[@Wolfntee]

Tuna too! ​@tinachristine4573

[@carlramirez6339]

Thank you for convincing me to not take up cannibalism.

[@ZeGamerZ-]

XD

[@aimliard2276]

😂 i read somewhere that human meat not only smell bad and the texture a little strange however its close to pig at least that is good

[@elijahknox4421]

​@@aimliard2276speak for yourself. I hate pork

[@spaceman081447]

​@@aimliard2276 That's why another term for cannibalism is "long pig."

[@amuk4229]

Did you not watch the video? Typical humans would taste bad but grass-fed humans should be delicious.

[@automation_by_blake]

The sun gives grass energy, the cow eats the grass for energy, we eat the cow to get the energy that we couldnt get from the grass/sun.

[@dotmakesnoise]

Not many cows are just grass feed, and even so, where the grass is grown, you could grow other crops, like hemp (good for poor land), soy, wheat, etc. We would still use much less land eating these directly then use them to feed cows (or similar mammals). A lot of the Amazonian rain forest distruction is purely for growing soy for cattle feed, so this does have a massive impact on our ecosystems.

[@chethanyadav8166]

Well red meat is not good for human diet so it's better not to consume cow

[@lilnibba2905]

Then I guess we should not eat grass but become grass to eat sun.

[@dotmakesnoise]

@@lilnibba2905 I don't think you understand. You replace the grass pastures with the many other food crops that we can consume. Humans don't need to change to eat soy, hemp, wheat, vegetables, fruit, corn, lentils, etc.

[@automation_by_blake]

@@dotmakesnoise yeah you are right, but they digest things differently than us. We still need to eat those veggies ourselves, but the way they digest the food is different and we can't pull the same nutrients in the same way in some cases.

[@bzaarr84]

Carnivore species have much smaller populations.

[@demolisherman1763]

As CGPGray once said, “Thermodynamics”

[@U.K.N]

Soooo long ago

[@tasrickhasan6899]

"We are the top Chicken" -CGP

[@hdrodic]

Ten pounds of grass make a pound of steak, and ten pounds of steak make a pound of tiger

[@David280GG]

Gd reference

[@bbgun061]

@@hdrodic And we can't eat grass.

[@RFakonWolf_Art]

I've heard this quote from a hunting channel once. "No meat you cook will taste bad as long as you cook it correct way and put in enough seasoning."

[@RabbyArt]

yeah any funky meat can be turned delicious by plenty of garlic, pepper, ginger, salt and onions.

[@orangejacket4551]

It’s true. Just make sure you check for rabies after..

[@RFakonWolf_Art]

@@orangejacket4551 And lots of parasite species resistant to heat... So I say, no thanks! 🤣

[@fraizie6815]

That just further solidifies the point why carnivores never became popular - to make their meat tender you need to put in a lot of time and energy.

[@AnimeIsLayfu]

In short, waste. Not just time or ingredients but energy as well. Why make yourself suffer when you can achieve the same thing with lesser effort?

[@ArshAmit-hd2le]

The Exotic Meat Market after seeing this video: Hold My Lion Meat.

[@johantchassem1553]

You forgot horse at the beginning. I once saw horse meat 🍖 at a local store. I was shocked !!

[@incineroar9933]

Other carnivores we eat include crustaceans, reptiles, terrapins, cetaceans, pinipeds, and amphibians.

[@roseyuen6916]

Also cephalopods, and dogs and cats in some places

[@BossOfAllTrades]

​@@roseyuen6916Lol I never understand that as you might as well eat rabbits, at that point there more efficient but I guess poor starving people eat stray dogs and cats.

[@therainbowgulag.]

Fish

[@duran9664]

❌ WRONG❌WRONG❌WRONG❌ People eat what easy to hunt & control🤷‍♀️ We would have eat each other if it easy to hunt humans, control them & eat them🤏

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@duran9664 No we wouldnt do that Its psychopathic

[@crayonzii]

3:33 That cow has two people going for a kiss on its back!

[@dryzalizer]

side*

[@Cheskoslavia]

@@dryzalizer No, it's a chalice!

[@DefnitelyNotFred]

Well spotted!

[@deleted-something]

What

[@max_me_is]

They painted a cow with a Rorschach painting, very cool

[@saptarshibhattacharya9385]

Herbivores: You can eat them, they dont try to eat you. Carnivores: You can eat them but they will also try to eat you

[@kingroyalty6731]

Westerners, "generally" do not eat carnivores, but there are exoctic meat markets in Asia where you can purchase and eat all kinds of carnivores... Also some tribes in Africa eat monkeys, bats, armadillo, etc

[@REMPLACEMENT-TV]

technically chicken and pigs are carnivores

[@moo422]

Definitely the inefficiencies/cost for farming. Snakes, Alligator/Crocodile, Shark, Whale, Bear, Seals, are all eaten around the world, but often require hunting/catching in the wild.

[@KB-qp7gk]

Thank you, finally someone mentioning HUNTING in this topic...

[@M33f3r]

Snake meat is amazing. Some of the best $50 or so a pound I've ever bought on the extremely rare occasion it is available.,

[@bigmoe9856]

Snake and Gator/Croc are an exception due to their methods of digestion/cold blooded factor. A snake only requires you give it a mouse once a week (I'm generalizing a theory, some snake owner can clarrify) while the gator/croc has an entire season where their metabolism basically shuts off. It is therefore cost efficienct to raise these for meat even though you'll be feeding them meat.

[@MarianLuca-rz5kk]

@@bigmoe9856 Do reptiles grow fast for economic efficiency ?

[@bigmoe9856]

@@MarianLuca-rz5kk compared to herbivores, no, this will be an investment on time. But they do have multplie offspring so you'll be working with batches

[@Jordan-vl8wm]

One straightforward reason related to efficiency is that there are significantly more herbivores in nature than carnivores.

[@RabbyArt]

I'm also 90% sure prey animals give birth more often and have larger litters of offspring. They likely even grow faster than carnivores

[@AndrewManook]

That's why we were hunter gatherers for most of our history.

[@randallbutler6795]

Your reason explains more than the other proposed reasons.

[@Fledhyris]

And they're easier to hunt/catch, never mind farm!

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@ksp6091]

One thing we could add is a link between the efficiency and taste hypothetis : the meat we eat and like is in the most part from animals that have been selected over millenia to taste how we want to (like cattle, chikens etc). And the animals we domesticate cannot be carnivorous because they are harder to feed more dangerous to keep arround

[@usuhbi]

Gators, crocodiles, and catfish taste good. And they will eat anything.

[@OddRagnarDengLerstl]

The "nasties" idea also applies to fish. Some species of fish are considered less "clean" because of their levels of heavy metals, PCB and other nasties.

[@fraizie6815]

Ah yes I love me some fish with a motherboard (PCB) in it /s

[@v44n7]

and some societies dont like fish or even people cant eat fish

[@warthoggoulags1679]

like thuna

[@Sonofdio2019]

@@fraizie6815frr, capacitors are just so 🤤

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@Tiffany_Waiting]

South East Asians: what are you talking about?

[@VergiliarEcaros]

We eat anything have 4 legs, unless it’s a chair lol

[@oh_k8]

They're not afraid of danger

[@GhostRiley-zs8zb]

you mean chinese

[@northernsnow6982]

Or anyone who has eaten alligators, snakes, or many types of ocean creatures.

[@tehkaihong5328]

​@@GhostRiley-zs8zb they be snacking too

[@gurjeetchannasingh3925]

Great!! 👏 Always needed this kind of appropriate answer.

[@iNsOmNiAcAnDrEw]

A sci-fi platforming gamer said that maybe there are just not enough carnivores to go around for consumption, the herbivores may just reproduce really fast and that's why we eat them. Which makes a lot of sense to me.

[@theMifyoo]

I think a big note is hunted meat vs farmed meat. Farmed meat we don't do predators on because of the conversion ratio among other things. As for hunted meat, a lot of people are not hunters. Also in theory it may have to do with availiability. Like if you have to eat multiple animals to keep yourself alive that in theory implies that there must be more of those things. If there was more predators then prey then the predators would end up starving themselves. So if you treat hunting as a random draw you are more likely to get something lower on the peaking order then something higher on the peaking order. You could target those rarer creatures but that would in effect just be drawing more cards/spending more effort.

[@ChineduOpara]

For the ADHD kids scrolling through, here is the tl;dr version: _"The population math doesn't add up"_ 👈 You're welcome 😊

[@xdevantx5870]

This is probably the biggest answer and also why fish are the "exception".

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@jhonbus]

My first thought was that when you decide what animal to go and eat, you're better off choosing one that's unlikely to pull an Uno reverse card on you.

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@Zandonus]

We love protein. Meat has protein. But so does milk products. Most cows throughout the ages have been making milk as a side-effect of making more cows. We love that. Free business. Dog milk, even horse milk is mid. Chickens too. Eggs-protein- apes together strong. Hell, we wiped a few species of bird off the census just for the eggs.

[@EmethMatthew]

A major factor with the whole "it's more efficient to get the calories from plants" things seems to be that mostly humans got their calories from meat because of there being lots of inedible plants in an area so the animals were about to convert those inaccessible calories into edible calories. Otherwise it seems that most humans get their calories from plants much more often in regions where growing edible plants was most favorable...

[@d3vi0uz1]

"We don't eat carnivores" Fish: am I a joke to you?

[@mr.rocheteau]

she mentions them in the vid

[@mr.rocheteau]

2:43

[@S1rRandom]

she mentions that in the vid broski

[@GabrielMoura-qe3il]

I want eat a white shark!

[@mr.rocheteau]

@@GabrielMoura-qe3il all the power to you

[@jgr7487]

I love how this video just ignored alligator farms in Southern US states. They are farmed to be slaughtered for their meat.

[@westonding8953]

They had pictures of them. They are not common though.

[@alexgrissom3513]

Just as immoral as eating cows and pigs

[@hawoaliahmed6996]

​@@alexgrissom3513believing that is tantamount to believing human existence is immoral,or/and any other carnivores as well.

[@alexgrissom3513]

@@hawoaliahmed6996 nope. You’re arguing what’s called an appeal to nature logical fallacy.

[@thefrenchselkie1401]

@@alexgrissom3513 how is it a fallacy? you cant just claim that. You have to explain WHY it's immoral. Say, because eating meat is bad for the environment, and choosing to eat it over more sustainable options is morally wrong because of the negative impact on the environment. Otherwise they're not wrong - there is nothing morally wrong about the concept of eating other animals. It's a fact of survival

[@bland9876]

Because of how domesticated dogs and cats are we could probably farm them if we really wanted to.

[@mihair2854]

Chinese and Koreans say hello.

[@bland9876]

@@mihair2854 I heard that it was actually illegal to do in those countries but they do it anyways like they do with a lot of things over there because Asia sucks apparently. I don't know if it's just the videos I'm getting fed on the internet but I don't see videos about other places that probably should suck too because cartels and s***

[@g43654]

The animals we eat tend not to eat us back. It's expensive to replace farmers.

[@anthonyanth8368]

In Zimbabwe we eat crocodile tail which is a by product from crocodile farms that produce leather for the fashion industry but like the video said it's not that readily available and is very seasonal but tastes great

[@jalenwatson4261]

Louisiana,Texas, and Florida does this

[@rystafford5781]

@@jalenwatson4261 more so alligator not croc

[@rystafford5781]

You can get it anywhere in the US.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

We do the same in South Africa. It's expensive and more of a novelty item, but it tastes very similar to chicken.

[@anthonyanth8368]

@@marcusmoonstein242 it does. Have you tried it grilled with mixed potato and sweet potato chips. Heavenly.

[@jacobringenwald]

I always assumed it was because predators are hard to domesticate. The exception is dogs and cats and they are eaten in certain parts of the world, but they're used in other ways regardless.

[@PeterSedesse]

The dogs they eat in Korea that are raised on farms are fed plant based foods. I was stationed there and there was a dog farm just off base. They are fed basically the same thing pigs are fed. Lots of soybeans etc.

[@OtherTheDave]

@@PeterSedesse Huh! Well, TIL… thanks!

[@MartinX192]

Dogs are omnivores, only cats are carnivores

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018)

[@yoglev8461]

what are you talking about, where are bears going to find berries in spring? There's no berries in spring lol

[@dracodracarys2339]

Meanwhile tuna are among the ocean's apex predators and yet they end up in tin cans. It's like making eagle nuggets, or tiger spam

[@FreshSmog]

People do eat bear, crocs, frogs, snakes, shark. They're mostly hunted rather than farmed of course.

[@119beaker]

Bear are omnivores (except polar bears and they aren't generally eaten) the rest are cold blooded and therefore have a much higher efficiency of turning food into meat around 3-4 times better than mammals.

[@ZhovtoBlakytniy]

People eat cetaceans (whales and such) too. Snapping turtles, sea birds, cats, dogs, seals, spiders, crustaceans

[@iDxnii.]

I just found out about this channel and I noticed that the sponsor was at the end of the video You've earned my respect for not ruining the flow of the video by putting the sponsor in the middle

[@HappilyCarnivore]

People probably put it in the middle because people are less likely to watch it if it's at the end. You've already seen the entire video. It would be like sticking around for the credits. Most people aren't going to do that.

[@Nothing2150]

There's dofferent values for where they put the ad role. The middle is the most expensive and the beginning is the least.​@@HappilyCarnivore

[@shawnabell7586]

The system is flawless. There's no inefficiency in the system. Each part of the system that you described is capable of different types of movement based upon the resources that they intake from the grass not being able to move at all to the cow being able to move slightly more than the grass and then the lion being able to basically pick up the cow.

[@loop3607]

Simple answer, most herbivore animal can be domesticated and therefore large in number so can be eaten, but most carnivore animal are most likely not be domesticated and also a potential threat, less in number, likely to get extinct.

[@AaronALAI]

Gator meat is a bit of an exception, maybe it is the transition from aquatic to terrestrial animals.

[@user-nu8vw1ow4n]

Some Japan eat bear meat

[@rickwilliams967]

For farming sure. That's it though. Talk to a real hunter and that changes a lot. People eat all sorts of carnivores

[@theman9048]

We eat snakes, dogs, cats, and all other kinds of animals

[@VeganSemihCyprus33]

We don't eat herbivores either 👉 Dominion (2018).

[@bleesev2]

I think there's also an evolutionary reason, hunting a carnivore is much more difficult and dangerous then hunting a herbivore, so we probably adapted to prefer herbivore meat over carnivore meat. I assume that's why most carnivores mostly feast on herbivores.

[@bleesev2]

Also fishing a carnivorous fish is as easy as fishing a herbivore fish so that can explain why we like carnivorous fish too.

[@A-185gaming10]

4:34 Includes NO PIG AT ALL

[@iftekhar77]

The word nasty has a good connotation to my adult brain 😂😂

[@No__direction__]

The casual occasionally Pokémon in your animations always make my day :)

[@akpsyche1299]

I noticed Deerling, Ursaring, Magikarp, and maybe Lycanroc.

[@minaashido518]

1:03 here

[@krum1703]

3:54 We basically just can't eat most things that cows, pigs, sheep, ect. can eat. We can't eat grass, we can't eat the stock of a bean, corn or tomato, we can't eat the leafs of carrots, turnips or potatoes. Instead of spending even more time and energy to make them edible as well, it's just easier to give them to the animals, who can also safely feed off of moldy bread.

[@evilduck1000]

Making land to feed animals is one of the biggest causes of deforestation. A lot of that land is used to grow crops to feed to animals.

[@krum1703]

@@evilduck1000 have you thought about the fact that some soils are just unfit to grow crops for us to eat, and that a pound of beef is much more nutritious than a pound of wheat or rice?

[@BossOfAllTrades]

​@@evilduck1000Most of that land is used for oil palm, Livestock agriculture is only about 20% of habitable land.

[@EcceJack]

That makes sense. In the modern world, it would actually be rather nice if farm animals were fed more or less only parts of edible plants that we don't eat (and/or other [for them] edible waste [edit:] or other things that can be grown in soils unsuitable for edible crops, like grass). It's just too bad this isn't really the case on the large scale

[@carsonhunt4642]

I literally just saw my local Safeway grocery store selling literal yard grass to eat, by the lettuce lol. 😂

[@magnuserror9305]

Its due to entropy, the system where we farm "carnivores" has a lot more entropy in it. Where as systems where we farm "herbivores" has much lower entropy. In order to farm "carnivores" we'd need to farm "herbivores". This also means we dont have the same thousands of years of farming tradition we had for "herbivores".

[@mystik5551]

the first game advert that actually makes sense definitely checking out the beast lord game Thanks for the video

[@travisdykes252]

I like how alligators were shown several times as an example of a predator we don’t eat or farm. But throughout the south they are eaten and farmed. And hunted. It’s super tasty meat.

[@AndrewManook]

No thanks

[@javieraguirre9135]

​@@AndrewManooki would like to taste them

[@jonp9654]

We eat fish and most fish are carnivores, and even octopus, squid or crustacean that are carnivores (or omnivores)...

[@11111Neeraj]

I tried eating a carnivore once but people started calling me cannibal or something like that smh.

[@gaaneshmujumdar]

Its the most easy explanation that hunting a herbivore is easier than a carnivore for the risk of getting hunted down and the difference in numbers too. Thousands of herbivores vs few carnivores vs even lesser humans. Also Ockham's razor is a factor.

[@RabbyArt]

also when you pick an animal to keep against its will to breed and domesticate the choice is made for you by nature XD

[@Delmworks]

I feel that an additional detail is that for most of our history, carnivores weren't remotely practical to hunt. Putting aside the sheer danger, they produce far less meat than an equally-dangerous herbivore-ex. a mammoth. Furthermore, predators are much more likely to be able to sneak up on your compared to a herbivore, and conversely would find it easier to hide from us as well. It's not like dangerous creature weren't hunted, but they were not hunted FOR FOOD- for glory or profit usually. If you just need to eat and don't care about such things it's so much safer to jus stalk a gazelle, and even big prey would lack interest unless you have a tribe to feed.

[@Raznak]

The second hypothesis also tells you that fish don’t contain the nasties from other creatures

[@fahada.979]

> it was difficult to hunt a carnivore in ancient times > their meet is way tougher in a relativistic sense > most carnivores hunt solely, they are not domesticatable

[@CalonDosen25]

In Indonesia we eat snakes, crocodiles, monkeys, cats, dogs, bats, monitor lizards. You wouldn't even believe how much Jakarta people consume dog meat per year

[@mr.q337]

There's a saying in Vietnam as a joke. If it move, it's edible =)))

[@TheHeavieKiwie]

Asians even eat cockroaches as well. Sometimes when I think about it, it's like eating whatever is caught.

[@TheHeavieKiwie]

These diets are mainly in China and South East Asia.

[@simonpetrikov3992]

In the South we eat alligator and rattlesnakes on occasion

[@dragonrykr]

And that folks is how we got covid

[@TheSkytherMod]

It's because it's easier for us to cultivate grains to feed them and graise animals than it is to feed meat eating animals to then eat.

[@silkyz68]

And that's relatively new thing too. Chickens primarily only eat grain and so raising them was a bit more prestigious to have as a meal. Now you can get a box of chicken nuggets from McDonald's for like five bucks

[@BossOfAllTrades]

​@@silkyz68Yea but steak taste alot better chickens actually eat the majority of grains grown in us and its subsidized by big corn.

[@duran9664]

❌ WRONG❌WRONG❌WRONG❌ People eat what easy to hunt & control🤷‍♀️ We would have eat each other if it easy to hunt humans, control them & eat them🤏

[@zackatwood2867]

They are more docile

[@BonQeeqeethe3rd320]

@@silkyz68chickens eat meat too, they eat insects and sometimes other chickens

[@spacetaco048]

Ok so here’s the very simple answer I indirectly got from ecology class: Plants = A ton of nutrients. Herbivores = only get like 1% of plants nutrients. Carnivores = only get like 1% of herbivores nutrients. So on and so forth. Therefore, the higher the animal is on the food chain, the less nutrients we get from that animal.

[@Pierrot9315]

But if we fed a tiger the diet of a farm cow, how would it go ? Would he survive ? And if we did with like a bigger version of cat food, what would it taste like ? A mix of what’s in the giant cat food ?

[@raykowalchuk3812]

There's a book called "Why We Love Dogs, Wear Cows and Eat Pigs." Not only are the pathogens multiplied in predator fish species, but the toxins bioaccumulate. Processing, smoking, curing, and cooking meat introduces other health risks.

[@noonefromnowhere99]

We don't have a good explanation? You literally gave one really good reason, efficiency. Prey animals are easy to domesticate and they have infinite food souce. second, cows, rabbits, goats, etc. have multichambered stomachs for digesting it and some of them eat the same food after it goes out the back end. That's important because even animals that have evolved to eat it, don't get all the nutrients and cows have to eat a lot. Our stomachs don't work nearly as well and they can eat things that we can't. We're taking advantage of that trait, let them get their energy from stuff we can't really eat and we just harvest it from them. Which leaves me to the last point, they taste good, grass doesn't.

[@valerieh325]

biomagnification

[@vladimarmunchkin2780]

Plus all the excess estrogen in soy throws off your hormones. The evidence for the health of a plant based diet is inconclusive at BEST.

[@alvinvaldes5034]

Something to note. Fish such as salmon are indeed carnivores. However, they are not at the top of the ocean food web. That title belongs to sharkes, dolphins, and whales, which we generally tend to avoid. I think this is important to know because the "nasty stuff" that they have are considerably higher levels of mercury.

[@nordgeit]

My 7+ kg of ground whale meat in the freezer:

[@eljanrimsa5843]

Do you think we don't eat tuna and swordfish?

[@alvinvaldes5034]

@eljanrimsa5843 Tuna and Swordfish are not on top of the food web.

[@eljanrimsa5843]

@@alvinvaldes5034 Only orcas are on top of the food web in the ocean, but 15-foot tuna and swordfish are pretty high up there. And they have the mercury load to prove it. We eat them.

[@alvinvaldes5034]

@eljanrimsa5843 With Swordfish, it is generally not recommended to eat them. Tuna, however, there are many safe species to consume. Sharkes are a level higher above them.

[@Marcos.Mereles]

Crocodile meat is very delicious and a common food in some places. But taste good just if it is well seasoned, if not, the taste is too strong, not easy to eat.

[@jacobopstad5483]

Here's another factor: for every carnivore, there are often hundreds of herbivores. Also, carnivores tend to be territorial and dangerous while herbivores are easier to catch, relatively. Plus, nowadays, a lot of carnivores are endangered. That being said, I have heard stories of people eating snakes.

[@gorgenfol]

By population size there's lots of plants, many plant-eaters, and few plant-eater-eaters. Hunting at the bigger buffet means you'll get more food

[@sohkaswifteagle2604]

you forgot a few other reason: back when we were hunter gatherer, hunting a gazelle is less risky then hunting a tiger. If you fail the gazelle simply run away. The tiger might turn around and eat you instead. Once we started to raise our livestock, it's much easier and safer to control a herd of cow rather then a pack of wolf. Then similarly, the problem we have with spiders, most carnivores are solitary creatures or lives in small family structures and require a huge piece of land. So on your farm you could raise 1 tiger or a whole herd of cow (and less chance the herd of cow will attack the farmer then the tiger) Finally, numbers. most big predators are on the list of animals in danger of extinction. Because as mention earlier most of then live in small groups or solitary on huge vast of land, they often have a slow reproduction cycle making them way harder to farm.

[@jonahmcglone3684]

The food chain is the best answer, chicken run from human, human run from tiger lol

[@lucashernandezcanessa3329]

Common sense: human can't haunt a hunter, human try, human die, other human learn, don't do that

[@Zack16611]

Loved the Pokémon and the Gravity Falls references! Subtle, but well done.

[@Spirelord]

Alligators are delicious and there are even alligator farms, like fish farms, meant to supply meat to various places all along the Gulf Coast. We totally eat carnivores lol

[@Stratelier]

But it depends on the species.

[@BossOfAllTrades]

I assume those farms let the alligators hunt themselves as they be expensive to feed

[@insectilluminatigetshrekt5574]

What do they feed the alligators

[@TheElusiveReality]

theres a reason this is rare and essentially only occurs in one location

[@cirobohrer1483]

I think historically hunting herbivores was way easier than carnivores. They're usually less aggressive, less territorial, reproduce in greater numbers. Tribal people didn't think on food nutrition... everything was game, and the easiest game were herbivores.

[@mahamo9373]

Really appreciate the effort put into this ❤❤

[@BackYardScience2000]

You mean you've never eaten alligator meat? I highly recommend it. Almost just like chicken.

[@kevink1575]

Frog legs too, but closer to the texture of fish.

[@doggonemess1]

I've had alligator jerky. It was good!

[@krum1703]

Just remember to be responsible while hunting!

[@zirtd9256]

alligator or crocodile tastes like turkey but with the texture of beef. very strange, but tasty experience

[@bennettfender9927]

Alligator is absolutely delicious one of my favorite foods especially that tail😋.

[@lovelylavenderr]

It's also usually a lot easier to hunt the herbivores. They're either fairly harmless like rabbits, or herd together making bigger targets for spears and bows, like bison, cows, or sheep. On the other hand, a lot harder to hunt something that's probably already hunting you. Something with dangerous claws and teeth as well as incredible speed and stealth.

[@0vercrafted]

I thought the deer looking like Deerling was just me being too Poképilled but then I saw the other animals. Nice nod, even got a shiny in there.

[@Hakim_Abdul]

my jokes: it's even more effficient to eat the plant yourself, but that's a whole other video.

[@frostburn2982]

top-chain predators really do condense things like parasites, heavy metals, and other bad stuff, which you covered here. thats probably one of the reasons we avoid them.

[@isaacbruner65]

We avoid mammalian predators but we don't seem to have the same concern for eating predatory fish, which have the exact same problem of bioaccumulation. I think the main reason we eat tuna but not tigers simply comes down to tuna being far more numerous and easier to catch.

[@aereonexapprentice7205]

​@@isaacbruner65Do those fish really have the same accumulation problem as carnivorous land animals? I assume not, since a quick look at your average consumable tuna and history of eating them just fine seems to indicate otherwise

[@296radithyasatria5]

​@aereonexapprentice7205 tuna has a relatively high mercury contents than fishes on the lower foodchain such as herrings

[@Bronze_Age_Sea_Person]

@@aereonexapprentice7205 Also, even if they accumulated parasites( Let's ignore the heavy metals for now, as they are indeed an issue when fish and seafod is concerned), most of them might not be compatible with mammals because they evolved to infect fish. Meanwhile, tigers are a lot close to us genetically, so a tiger parasite of disease might infect us. I imagine that's why monkeys and rats are quite dangerous to eat, even if we created them in a lab.

[@TimRobertsen]

3:55 - Don't eat grass. Humans don't have a digestive system which handles grass well :p

[@BossOfAllTrades]

Lol

[@bacongaming1353]

It also has Silica which is harmful to our teeth if im right

[@TimRobertsen]

The human stomach isn't very fond of cellulose, which is the main component of standard grass. Humans only have one stomach, unfortunately, in order to digest grass properly one would need a couple of stomachs. But, who knows, maybe one day :p

[@BossOfAllTrades]

@@TimRobertsen the farther we stray from nature the worst things get

[@rian0xFFF]

@@TimRobertsen how about grass juice

[@cradleofrelaxation6473]

This video is unique and believe it or not this is the first time I came across such since I started using internet. Very thought provocative‼️

[@SciMinute]

I’d heard it was just because they were smelly, but there were another reasons! 😮

[@rickwilliams967]

This video is pretty much total BS. It's just allegedly cheaper, even though it isn't.

[@jasminerochas-oq8jw]

It seems that most cultures have ancestral taboos against eating the animals sitting on top of the food chain.

[@JDoe001]

Interesting fun fact: sharks don’t think we taste very well. However, there are some people that think sharkfin soup is delicious.

[@thanglauc]

"Why Don't We Eat Carnivores?" Asians: Are you challenging us?

[@merrymachiavelli2041]

Even prior to domestication/in societies where hunting is more prominent, one would expect predators to make up a smaller proportion of diet, simply because there are far few predators per km2 than there are herbivores. They are also more dangerous/difficult to catch, especially relative to the amount of meat you get.