Killer Whales and the Paleo Diet December 5, 2008
Posted by Dr Dan in animal studies, paleo foods.Tags: killer whale, orca, paleo diet
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As a marine biologist I often come across things that can have some relevance to the Paleo Diet. Generally, it is in terms of foraging, diet or evolution. Well, before I get to the point here are some examples of killer whales hunting a gray whale and her calf, an animal much larger than themselves. Watch both videos as they have very different endings. Then I will discuss the relevance.
In the first video the killer whales kill the young calf after 6 hrs of hunting it. After all this time and energy expenditure they only ate the tongue and then left the rest to waste. This is interesting because these are extremely large social animals and would require a lot of energy, and therefore food, to keep their metabolisms running. The fact that after 6 hrs they only chose to eat the tongue suggests to me that these killer whales were well fed and obtainable food must be in abundance for them.
I know that the scientific literature suggests that our paleolithic ancestors would also have had an abundance of food. So, in terms of the paleo diet I wonder how many times our ancestors hunted large beasts and only ate specific body parts, such as the marrow or the organs, discarding the rest. I know that hunter gatherers tend to prefer organs and marrow, and if they used to discard the rest, then this puts more emphasis on eating those parts of the carcass that were favoured. But really, I just wanted to show the cool videos.
Food
Sorry I promised a surprise today and I couldn’t do it. Not my fault. Its coming though. So, wow what a low hunger day!!! I can’t believe it. I woke up this morning very hungry (ps – 105.3 kg now) and I thought it was going to be a high hunger day. I had some fruits (nectarine, plum) and my fish oil but that didn’t do the trick. So I caved in at 11am and had 150g of Trevally (fish fillet) with a salad (lettuce, capers, tomato, spanish onion, olive oil).
Fish and Salad (capers, lettuce, tomato, spanish onion and olive oil)
But this relatively light meal filled me up completely. Lunch passed by and I just didn’t feel like eating. Finally at 4pm I decided to have the dinner I was cooking and just miss lunch. I had put some chin bone beef in the slow cooker along with some peppercorns, pumpkin, onion, bayleafs, and brocolli. I let it cook for several hours. It was delicious and I particularly enjoyed the marrow. Then I was absolutely fill. So a little weirded out at how low my calorie intake was today (700 calories). Not worried though.
Chin bone beef in the slow cooker with pumpkin, brocolli, onion, bayleafs, and peppercorns
After today, I have decided I might give the calorie breakdown a rest for the week. I find it is no longer useful to me and I am better off eating when I am hungry. If at the end of the week it has posed some problem I don’t have the foresight to see then I will bring it back.
Exercise
20 min sprint workout
Yup, very cool videos, thanks. Very different narration styles, too. Living not far from the So CA coast, the migration cycle of the grey whales is a big thing here.
I think your interpretation is probably right. When my young cat catches a mouse, it ends up on the patio and then she bites off and eats the head, then wanders off. Then the older (well-fed-but-always-always-looking-for-a-snack) cat comes along and finishes off the abandoned mouse. Neither ate their prey (that I ever noticed) until I stopped feeding them cooked commercial cat food and started making raw meat and bones for them. Must have awakened the connection between hunting and feeding. But the younger healthier one is very discriminating. She’s not wild about tuna either.
your articles are interesting and so useful for me. Thank you for sharing great information.
Patiently waiting for the suprise! Interesting alanysis. Do you really think that former hunter gatherers might have abandoned meat of any kind? I was under the impression that we through evolution were exceptionally efficient at utilizing all of hunted carcasses.If not for food than for other purposes, i.e. tools, warmth etc. What do you think?
Anna – Very different narration styles. Much preferred the BBC one but I always do.
Fat smash diet – thanks!!
Son of Grok – not sure. It was more a question than an answer. I know that animals can be wasteful in times of abundance. I just had a quick look on the internet for lions, another large social predator, and found examples where they had not eaten much of the carcass. Interestingly, they seem to eat the carcass from the inside out. But I think it all comes down to ‘how hungry the animal is’. If they havn’t eaten for awhile then no doubt they would eat it all. Interesting question though.
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