Portfolio > The Quest for Food: Excerpts
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Primate
Diets All illustrations by the author Ivan Crowe |
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Scavenging
There may have been little left after a pride of lions had finished eating and once the original predators have had their fill whatever was left of a kill would then have been dismembered over a period of time by various scavengers in a fairly predictable sequence. The more powerful animals such as hyenas had first choice of the pickings while the weaker and more marginal scavengers such as the vultures and jackals had to make do with what was left. It is though uncertain at what point early hominids became involved in the sequence of events. It is unlikely that even the use of primitive weapons and threat would have persuaded a pride of lions to relinquish their prize nor dislodged a pack of hyenas but other scavengers may have been persuaded to leave. |