eli5: Why some animals are born with the instinct to eat meat, while others have the instinct to eat plants?
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They dont. They try everything untill they figure out what works best. Cows do casually eat radts and squirels and other small animals, cats sometimes like to eat vegies. Majority of carnivorous can survive on vegetable diet for some time
Also a lot of herbivores will also snag some easy meat in occasion, like a deer eating a bird kinda thing but they arnt built for it
Because their ancestors had that instinct(originally by chance) and survived to pass it on. Instincts that match the organisms capabilities are more likely to get passed on than those that don’t. An herbivore with a mutation that makes it only want meat is extremely unlikely to obtain enough meat to survive, and a carnivore that only eats vegetables is unlikely to get enough calories out of it to survive.
Though many animals in either category will opportunistically eat from the other category.
Herbivores are walking bags of accumulated resources, which carnivores are optimized to exploit. Similarly, plants are a store of accumulated resources, which herbivores are optimized to exploit.
Omnivores are more flexible, but not as good as the specialists when competing for the same resource.
Because their ancestors had that instinct(originally by chance) and survived to pass it on. Instincts that match the organisms capabilities are more likely to get passed on than those that don’t. An herbivore with a mutation that makes it only want meat is extremely unlikely to obtain enough meat to survive, and a carnivore that only eats vegetables is unlikely to get enough calories out of it to survive.
Though many animals in either category will opportunistically eat from the other category.
Herbivores are walking bags of accumulated resources, which carnivores are optimized to exploit. Similarly, plants are a store of accumulated resources, which herbivores are optimized to exploit.
Omnivores are more flexible, but not as good as the specialists when competing for the same resource.
If a herbivore was born with an instinct to eat meat, then it wouldn’t live very long, and so, wouldn’t have children, and so, the next generation would not have that problem.
If a herbivore was born with an instinct to eat meat, then it wouldn’t live very long, and so, wouldn’t have children, and so, the next generation would not have that problem.
it’s just one example for one ecosystem, there are so many more examples of how different species have a different purposes and how important that is to life itself. Every living organism has job to dop survival live on, things that don’t die off.
If everything ate plants there’s be no plants left. If everything ate meat, there’d be no animals left. The two balance each other out and allow everything in nature to exist. That’s why top-tier predators are and bottom-tier insects are so important to the environment.
If you want a good visual that sumerizes how things interlap and impact one another, i reccomend this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=180&v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=180&v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title)
It’s very simple and summarized but gives the basic idea.
it’s just one example for one ecosystem, there are so many more examples of how different species have a different purposes and how important that is to life itself. Every living organism has job to do and life depends on that variation.
just like your work job has different rolls to keep the company afloat and removing one could have harmful effects.
it’s just one example for one ecosystem, there are so many more examples of how different species have a different purposes and how important that is to life itself. Every living organism has job to dop survival live on, things that don’t die off.
If everything ate plants there’s be no plants left. If everything ate meat, there’d be no animals left. The two balance each other out and allow everything in nature to exist. That’s why top-tier predators are and bottom-tier insects are so important to the environment.
If you want a good visual that sumerizes how things interlap and impact one another, i reccomend this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=180&v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=180&v=ysa5OBhXz-Q&embeds_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title)
It’s very simple and summarized but gives the basic idea.
it’s just one example for one ecosystem, there are so many more examples of how different species have a different purposes and how important that is to life itself. Every living organism has job to do and life depends on that variation.
just like your work job has different rolls to keep the company afloat and removing one could have harmful effects.
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