As a class, we decided to put our teacher's claim to a test. We built a pen behind the ag building. The pen was divided into six separate areas into which we put six hogs. Each hog had unlimited water to drink and two separate feed troughs. The feed troughs were separated by the watering trough. While we weren't able to use banana pudding for our test, we did have access to all the scraps from the school cafeteria. Daily we filled one of the feed troughs in each holding pen with leftover bread, potatoes, desserts, etc. Basically all the sugars and carbohydrates. We filled the second feed trough with nothing but "greens", such as lettuce, spinach, turnip greens, and the like.
After 2 weeks, we concluded that the hogs were indeed able to regulate what they ate. Yes, they dove into the "bad stuff", but not in the way that we [students] suspected. They actually ate more of the "greens" than they did the other offerings. In fact, if memory serves, the experiment showed these "dumb" animals went for the "healthy" offerings nearly 2/1 over the "desserts".
Now, I know that a hog's brain is larger and more developed than that of a fish, but I have a hard time believing that "Mother Nature" would leave these creature's well-being to chance without some sore of built in ability to determine which available forage was most beneficial to their survival.
Ever see those documentaries on TV that show how a wolf will devour the nutrient rich organs (including the contents of the stomach) of downed prey before they snack on the rest of the carcass?
It's certainly food for thought.
- Gary
At 07:42 PM 11/17/03, you wrote:
I was considering the question 'why would a fish bother with something as small as a nymph or a midge' NOT 'why a fish would why 'choose' one item of food over another..'
midges may be small but they have a good food value...
I doubt a fish has its weight watchers guide when it comes to feeding... but it somehow it differentiates between eat and don't eat...
we try to make 'fish don't eats' look like 'fish eats'....
sometimes we have no clue why a fish decided our flies classify as eats...
and some times we have no clue why a fish decides our flies dont classify as eats...
what do we know... colour, size, and movement all have an impact on whether fly is in the eat or dont eat category...
I expect that how 'hungry' a fish is also has an impact on how the eat don't eat decision is made...
any way back to my cave now...
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