Why is it that bears, birds and other animals can eat fish without getting the bone stuck in their throat, but when humans do it and the bone gets stuck, it becomes an emergency ?
In: Biology
Bears don’t typically go through the trouble of eating an entire fish, and neither do birds, really.
For them, hunting and actually obtaining prey takes a lot of energy and time. For bears specifically, they’ll typically eat the fleshy outsides and heads of fish where there is a good amount of meat and calories and where bones aren’t an issue or aren’t dense enough to matter. They’ll leave a good portion of the torso where all the little spiny bones are behind because it’s just too much hassle and not enough reward. Other critters, like birds might come in later and pick around the bones since they have more precision with beaks. Other birds can simply swallow small enough fish whole, thereby nullifying the potential for choking on bones entirely.
Bears do choke on the bones. They typically don’t eat the fish meat because of this. They only eat the brains eggs and skin, and leave the rest for the soil to break down. Easier to catch another fish than to try to eat the bones.
The physical qualities of cooked bone vs uncooked bone could have much to do with it.
When bones are cooked, they get hard and brittle, while uncooked bones have some flexibility to them. Cooked bones are therefore more likely to break into sharp pieces, while uncooked bones are less likely and therefore less piercing.
This is why uncooked bones are okay for animals, like dogs, while cooked bones may be extremely dangerous.
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