C. ten Broeke wrote:

> Amadeus, this is absolutely not right. Big apes (and small ones for that
> matter) eat meat. They will eat anything from small rodents to apes of
> other species. And not a little either, male chimps can eat up to 450
> grams of meat a day, females and lower in rank males get less meat.
> Insects, larvae you name it, apes eat it!

Ok ok Christy, Chimps eat "meat" as you list it. According to Jane
Godall it makes up 2% of their year round diet. (Blossoms were 3 or 4%,
btw.) But that's a different topic.
They have got small brains. Is is because they eat meat, or though?
Or are they intelligent because they eat 2% meat or because they eat
fruit? Certainly they are the most intelligent animals in contrast to
tigers ;-)

> I think the question if whales, sharks, cats or tigers are intelligent
> is non-comparible. They could have a whole set of values we know nothing
> about.  When I think of dolphins or parrots (who are supposed to have
> the brain of a 4 year old child) I cannot compare. They live in a
> different sort of environment then we do and their sort of intelligence
> can be unmeasurable to us. ..

I agree.
Please keep in mind that I responded to a previous posting and it was my
intention to point exactely out what you did again.

Your info about parrots is interesting -  "4 year old child" puts them
in line with chimps! That with a quite small brain.

Ok, it went over the *size* of the human brain. Does it need a special
kind of nutrition to make it *grow* that large and/or does it need a
special nutrition to *feed* it energetically.

For *growth* you could argue together with Dr.Cordain (and many
mainstream scientists) that eating additional DHA (and AA) would be
necessary for the child or breastfeeding mother. I don't subscribe to
this for reasons I mentioned in the last and in previous posts.

*Feeding* the big brain requires additional glucose and I tried to point
out that tubers are much besster suited for this as additional protein
could be.
So far...

regards

Amadeus
(.."dominance of males over females" in humans??
not everyone would subscribe to this ;-)