Talk:Carnivore

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Contents 1 true carnivores 2 Dogs 3 Baleen whales 4 Really necessary to name all carnivores? 5 Piece of tail 6 Evolution 7 Idea for discussion 8 Wording of Opening Paragraph 9 "Plant Material" - Need verifiable sources

[edit] true carnivores

Umm. This page is very confusing. It speaks of "true carnivores" but doesn't define what a true carnivore is, compared to, say, all the other carnivores. Are dogs true carnivores? They aren't listed in the (very short) list of "true carnivores." So confusing. PhiloVivero 03:56, 8 Nov 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Dogs

Domestic dogs are not carnivores. What about wild dogs - such as wolves, hyenas and dingoes, are their diets solely carnivorous?--ZayZayEM 02:23, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Classification of animals by diet is tricky, ZayZayEM, even misleading. This order has only been called so because most of these animals are carnivorous and because their jaws and teeth are especially adapted to devouring animals, and their digestive canal is short. Indeed domestic dogs eat almost anything you give them, but that doesn't change their carnivorous nature. I'll tell you something, my parents have a cat that fancies eating cumcumber skins! Yet all cats are carnivorous. Caesarion 19:04, 22 Apr 2005 (UTC)

And, by the way, Hyenas are not dogs...MFuture 03:49, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Baleen whales

Are not some baleen whales (e.g. blue whales) carnivores also? I would agree that they are not really predators, but they eat primarily krill, which are undoubtably animals.

Some people might argue that carnivores eat specificly meat, and not animals in general, but the definition of meat varies from culture to culture (sometimes mostly religous). Perhaps this ambiguity should be noted.

Now I realise that we could list a ream of carnivores that aren't mentioned, but mentioning toothed whales suggests that baleen whales definitely aren't. A much shorter (and therefore clearly incomplete(?)) list might be better, or no list at all. Maybe a list of 'famous' carnivores, e.g. lion, tiger, shark, eagle, etc.

--DavidEdwards 02:03, 24 May 2005 (UTC)

I will delete 'toothed'. Pukkie (talk) 13:30, 28 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Really necessary to name all carnivores?

A bit excessive, no? --Banana04131 04:06, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, especially when their kingdom-phylum-class-order-family-species pages contain all that information anyway. Blast 08.11.06 2220 (UTC -5)

[edit] Piece of tail

I've heard the kinkajou is one of only 2 carnivores with a prehensile tail. Can anybody confirm? And what's the other? Trekphiler 00:57, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

Binturong. Dora Nichov 13:17, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Evolution

Some information on how carnivores evolved would be interesting - certain animals must, at some stage, adapted to be able to consume other animals as well as plants. A shortage of plant food would be a recurring problem for species, so natural selection would favour those with the ability to digest other animals as well, eventually leading to species that were entirely carnivorous. The balance carnivores provide to ecosystems, creating a stable equilibrium, is another factor. If anyone can find some material on their evolution it would make a great addition to the content of the article. Richard001 05:12, 4 December 2006 (UTC)

There were animals before "plants".

-G —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 134.117.157.7 (talk) 03:05, 14 February 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Idea for discussion

I've an idea... Howsabout we roll herbivore, ominvore, carnivore and insectivore into one article with redirects from those terms? One article, animal feeding. Might be better than trying to pad out these terms seperately. If the sections fill out properly then they can be split off at a later date. This will also allow comparisons to be drawn between different feeding groups.AlanD 11:40, 21 February 2007 (UTC)

Discuss:

[edit] Wording of Opening Paragraph

The intro paragraph has confusing wording. In some cases, it indicates that carnivorous animals eat other animal matter, whereas in other instances, it takes a more restricted approach; i.e. implying that "carnivores" usually mean animals that eat other vertebrate meat. Would someone who has been around this Wikipedia entry more than me try to shore up the wording a bit? Tomwithanh 04:09, 25 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Plant Material" - Need verifiable sources

"some plant material is essential for adequate nutrition" -- This statment needs to either have some verifiable sources or it needs to be removed. My first hand experiance holds that this statment is false most of the time, but I don't have sources to cite. Someone please look into correcting this. Jamie Dolan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.8.39.25 (talk) 17:24, 26 March 2008 (UTC)