One day while out for a walk I was listening to one of my favorite science podcasts The Infinite Monkey Cage. If you have never listen to an episode of this particular podcast I highly recommend giving it a listen. If you are anything like me then you will be confused, inspired, and laughing so hard you might pee your pants. In one particular episode one of the following brain teaser was posed:
A farmer is returning from market, where he bought a goat, a wolf and cabbage. On the way home he must cross a river. His boat is little, allowing him to take only one of the three things. He can’t keep the goat and the cabbage together (because the goat would eat it), nor the goat with the wolf (because the goat would be eaten). How shall the farmer get everything on the other side (without any harm)?
If you need the answer to this riddle click here. There was much questioning about if a wolf would ever eat a cabbage, most said no while one panelist stuck to his guns and said wolves practice selective vegetarianism. If you're screaming "wolves are carnivores!" at your screen right at the moment take a deep breath and let's ponder somethings.
Let's begin by thinking about domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) a close relative to wolves (Canis lupus). Ask anyone if a dog is a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore and they will enthusiastically shout "Carnivore! After all they have those large sharp pointy teeth and are related to wolves." Not so fast there friends. Dogs are classified into the Order Carnivora, but not all members of the Order are carnivorous (getting the nutrient and energy strictly from a diet of meat.)
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| Penny and Diesel |
Meet Penny (left) and Diesel (right) they belong to friends of mine and can be the funniest two characters around. Favorite things to eat ANYTHING food flavored. Along with the standard dry dog food these two love BACON! (Is there a dog alive that will not eat bacon.) They also have a huge love for green beans, broccoli, and OMG! ARE YOU EATING AN APPLE!! GIME SOME PLEASE! This picture was taken while my friend was trying to enjoy an afternoon snack of apples. From the minute an apple appears from the fridge Diesel turns into a drool monster. Drips of drool drop from his lips as he watches someone eat an apple. These two genuinely love their fruits and veggies!
If you are thinking they only want it because someone else is eating it then ponder this. Over the past summer a beautiful garden full of fresh veggies was planted in the yard and in the minds of these two fur babies it was all for them. One afternoon while my friend was picking veggies Penny grabbed an entire stalk of broccoli and was caught red pawed as she tried to sneak away. These two are not isolated cases of dogs eating fruits and veggies more than willingly a casual glance at many of my friends Facebook posts, about the family dog's eating habits, shows fruit and veggie thievery to be common second only thievery of bacon.
Through the process of domestication a series of genes became favored which allow domesticated dogs to be able to breakdown starch and glucose found in plant material. Dogs tend to be much more omnivores than true carnivores eating a variety of fruits and veggies and often eating grasses even when they are not ill. Dogs as omnivores is not without its controversy though. Click here to read an argument for dogs as carnivores.
If you do a quick YouTube search of dogs eating cabbages you can watch dogs eat and fight over who gets to eat the cabbage. Don't worry I checked cabbage is safe for dogs.
Great case closed....not so fast. Wolves are much older, in an evolutionary scale, than domesticated dogs are. Looking at the vast amount of research available on wolf diets plant material makes up such a small part of their total diet and since they can go at times weeks without eating, I think the selective vegetarian argument might be too big of a stretch. Berries and grasses on occasion sure, pine needles and flowers ok, but a wolf looking at a cabbage and thinking "I'll eat that" might be going a little too far.With so many sources of meat available to wolves and their adaptations to a feast or famine environment I think there might be a whole lot of things wolves would eat before becoming a vegetarian. Also, after searching numerous phrases I could not come up with any research on selective vegetarianism in wolves.
Searching as best I could to come up with a 100% conclusive answer I am still at a loss. I guess to put this question to rest we need a large field of cabbages some motion sensor cameras, and a couple of packs of wolves to see if at any time even one genetically verified wolf eats a cabbage, until then everyone keep searching for answers.
Want to know more:
HART, B. L. (2009). Why do dogs and cats EAT GRASS?. Firstline, 5(12), 22.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201412/why-dogs-eat-grass-myth
http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Canis_lupus_familiaris/
http://vetnutrition.tufts.edu/2016/07/vegan-dogs-a-healthy-lifestyle-or-going-against-nature/
http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/03/10/vegan.dog.diet/index.html
http://www.vetstreet.com/our-pet-experts/are-dogs-carnivores-heres-what-new-research-says
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/6698A301900EEDF10E49B062A2BD9ED8/S0007114514002311a.pdf/dietary_nutrient_profiles_of_wild_wolves_insights_for_optimal_dog_nutrition.pdf
http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Carnivora/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1376015?seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents
https://www.slu.se/globalassets/ew/org/inst/ekol/forskning/projekt/skandulv/publikationer/studentarbeten/muller-2006-diet-composition-of-wolves-on-the-scandinavian-peninsula-determined-by-scat-analysis.pdf?si=C5298030A14DC3A8FC481AABCA982AEF&rid=488385901&sn=sluEPi6-prodSearchIndex
http://www.askabiologist.org.uk/answers/viewtopic.php?id=4674
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