Carnivorous

Young animals may be fed several times daily. Examples include the standard practices of feeding fry channel catfish every three hours and young northern pike as frequently as every few minutes. Keeping carnivorous species such as northern pike satiated helps reduce the incidence of cannibalism. 

Exposure to estrogenic compounds through diet will differ for herbivores and carnivores, the latter being most likely to encounter endogenous steroids in their prey. Efficient uptake of steroids in mammals is illustrated by the use of the contraceptive pill, but routes of absorption in invertebrates remain to be determined. The relationship between endocrine disruption and metabolic toxicity, with reduced reproductive viability a secondary consequence of metabolic disturbance, also merits further study in invertebrate species. 

In the case of animals we are concerned primarily with a two-step process accumulation of airborne contaminants on or in vegetation or forage that serves as their feed and subsequent effects of the ingested herbage on animals. In addition to pollution-affected vegetation, carnivores (humans... 

Food chain Very simple pathway of nutrient flow. Ex. Carnivore > herbivore > plant. 

FIGURE 1.2 The food pyramid. Photosynthetic organisms at the base capture light energy. Herbivores and carnivores derive their energy ultimately from these primary producers. 

Vitamin Bjg is not synthesized by animals or by plants. Only a few species of bacteria synthesize this complex substance. Carnivorous animals easily acquire sufficient amounts of Bjg from meat in their diet, but herbivorous creatures typically depend on intestinal bacteria to synthesize Bjg for them. This is sometimes not sufficient, and certain animals, including rabbits, occasionally eat their feces in order to accumulate the necessary quantities of Big. 

Fleischfarbe, /. flesh color, fleisch farbig, farben, a. flesh-colored. Fleisch-faser, /. muscle fiber, -faulnis, /. spoiling or putrefaction of meat, fleischfressend, p.a. meat-eating, carnivorous. Fleisch-gift, n. meat toxin, ptomaine, -guinmi,... 

In a temperate forest ecosystem on Isle Royale, Michigan, ecologists found that it takes 762 pounds (346 kg) of plant food to support every 59 pounds (27 kg) of moose, and that 59 pounds of moose are required to support every one pound (0.45 kg) of wolf. The basic point is that massive amounts of energy do not flow from one trophic level to the next energy is lost at each stage of the food chain, so there are more plants than herbivores and more herbivores than carnivores. 

Figure 3.2. Average carbon isotopic ratios for all human, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore bone samples from the European Holocene in the data base A Uncorrected ratios (Cu) B climate-corrected ratios (Cc). Only countries with more than 10 samples are included. For a description of the climatic correction procedure see text. 

Study, ancient Maya diet shows a A N of 4.5%o (humans-herbivores). The 8 N values for mixed-diet humans in Schoeninger et al. (1983) seem always somewhat too positive for their supposed food European agriculturalists are about 8-10%o. Also, Bocherens et al. (1991) and Lubell et al. (1994) give similar values (aroimd +9%o) for medieval French and Neolithic humans from Portugal, respectively. The 8 N values (+9.3 and 11.6%o) of two human (Neanderthal) samples (Fizet et al. 1995) are very similar to those of associated carnivores but are only slightly higher than those of Neolithic humans. 

Table 3.2 shows the 5 Cu and 5 Cc values of herbivores, omnivores, carnivores and humans. The (climate-corrected) trophic level effect between herbivores and carnivores is 0.90%o. Human values are closer to carnivore and omnivore values than to herbivore 5 Cc values. The human 5 Cc values are on average 0.66%o more positive than the herbivore 5 Cc values, a good estimate for a carnivore effect in humans (see section on trophic level effects, below). The average human 5 Cc value is -19.92 1.28%o,which would indicate that Holocene humans in Europe had a diet that consisted of C3 terrestrial foods, whieh is as might be expected. By looking at the humans separate from the total bone data set, we notice potential human food selection (Fig. 3.3) we can see a non-climatic pattern, which is much less uniform than in the total bone data set (Fig. 3.2b). Italy (6 Cc = -21.3%o) has a much more negative 8 Cc value than the Czech Republic (8 Cc =-18.7%o), Spain (8 Cc = -19.3%o) and Greece (-18.9%o but the 8 N of 9.0%odoes not indicate marine food), while the northern European coimtries are closer to a 5 Cc value of-20%o. What the actual causes are for this pattern in the human samples is not clear to better understand these variations it is best to consider, where possible, the 8 N values with the 8 Cc values. 

Tabic 3.2. A comparison of the average 5 Cj and 5 Cc values of human, herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore bone samples from the European Holocene. 

Modem samples of herbivorous and carnivorous species come from Europe, Siberia and northwestern North America (Alaska and British... 

Columbia). They have been killed recently or have been obtained from museum collections (Table 4.1). The latter may be as much as several decades old. Herbivorous species have been sampled. Bears have been treated separately from other carnivores due to their omnivorous rather than strictly... 

C values of carbonate hydroxylapatite range from -148 to -10.3%o in herbivores. They range from -17.4 to -15.4%o in bears, and from -16.1%o to -14.5 in carnivores (Table 4.1). The average values clearly differ between herbivores (-12.7 1.4%o), bears (-16.2 0.6%o) and carnivores (-15.5 0,6%o). The 5 C values of carbonate hydroxy lapatite of bears are slightly more negative than those of other carnivores. 

The difference between the 5 C values of carbonate hydroxylapatite and collagen (A C) of the same individual, range from 5.8 to 9.2 in herbivores, from 2.7 to 5.7 in bears, and from 4.3 to 5.5%o in carnivores (Table 4.1). There is no overlap of A C values between herbivores on one hand, and bears and carnivores on the other. The average A C value is slightly larger in carnivores than in bears, but with a large overlap. 

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