Do hogs actually eat dead human bodies?

Jason

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Well, it's getting on near dinner time, and the stomach was growling in hunger, but this thread sure solved that problem! LOL
 

Axl Prose

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Hannibal (the book, I can't remember how much was in the movie) goes into great detail on this subject btw.
 
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GregFH

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It's not just hogs either. A lot of otherwise perfectly happy herbivores like deer or tortoises will nibble a carcass if they come across it. Butterflies even. But unlike hogs these are unlikely to eat the lot. Still, I never quite looked the same way at deer since seeing that one pic of a deer with a human rib sticking from its mouth, looking straight at the camera. That shot was even taken in a actual study to see what sort of animals would snack on a human carcass. Oh yeah, Bambi will happily take a bite...

It's the bones in carcasses that interest deer and other herbivores. They're a source of minerals, sort of like a salt lick. The phenomenon of herbivores eating bones is well enough documented to have a name: osteophagia. Of course, they sometimes do eat more than the bones. I recently read a book by the recently retired Curator of Education at the Bronx Zoo, who recounts the startling scene of watching a giraffe munch its way through a whole pigeon (presumably grabbed from a tree branch), feathers, flesh, bones and all. There's a mention in another post of Lammergeiers (German for Lamb Vultures; the English common name is Bearded Vultures), vultures that actually eat bones. It might be worth noting that they don't sit and munch on the bones at the carcass--they take the bones up in the air and smash them into bits by dropping them onto rocks and then eating the shattered results.
 

Friendly Frog

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*makes note of correct English name for lammergeier*

Huh, I was so sure English used lammergeier too, but at least now that clears up what a bearded vulture looks like. :tongue We live and learn.

Yeah, it's pretty impressive how they deal with bones. It's apparently not an easy skill either, they have to look for a good smashing sites and account for things like windspeed and such or the bone won't break right.
 

GregFH

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*makes note of correct English name for lammergeier*

Huh, I was so sure English used lammergeier too, but at least now that clears up what a bearded vulture looks like. :tongue We live and learn.

Yeah, it's pretty impressive how they deal with bones. It's apparently not an easy skill either, they have to look for a good smashing sites and account for things like windspeed and such or the bone won't break right.

There are really no rules when it comes to common names. I've heard/seen the German name used by English speakers. There is also another archaic common name, ossifrage, from the Latin, which shows up in some more old-fashioned English translations of the Bible.
 

Tazlima

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WARNING: Grossout ahead

I have a pet squirrel, and she eschews any and all meat (I've offered it to her occasionally just to see what she would do).

That is, she DID. THen one day, through a series of bizarre circumstances, she came face to face with a pinkie newborn wild mouse. For the first sniff or two, as it squirmed and made tiny sucking noises at her, I thought her interest was maternal in some way. Then she grabbed it and scarfed it down, bones and all, in about 30 seconds flat, like it was a big old candy bar.

Sooo gross... Poor little mouse. :(
 
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