eli5: How are animals able to know that grown foods not native to the area are able to be eaten?

Question

eli5: How are animals able to know that grown foods not native to the area are able to be eaten?

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Answer 1

Well, they do and they don’t. It depends on the animal.

But at the end of the day, hunger is a huge motivator. If an animal is hungry, it is going to try eating ANYTHING in front of them and see if it’s good/satiating.

In fact, more often then not animals DONT know what is safe if their normal food isn’t around, and just eat whatever they can.

So people actually have to make sure they walk any new pasture area or walk any area they are leaving animals to make sure there aren’t any plants there that are toxic that they may actually eat.

So, TL:DR, animals will eat whatever they can when hunger drives them to, including both safe and unsafe food.