Andrew > In the wild state, the most important component of diet is energy content, and all free ranging creatures adopt strategies to maximise their access to it.

William > This seems to be based on the common assumption that food was hard to get.


Agreed.  There seems to be this Hobbesian assumption by some that food was hard to get for our hunter gatherer brethren.  Given abundance, or even relative abundance, it's probably that we were a lot more picky.  Todd might remember the example I used a few years back about trout in a poor versus rich trout stream.  Trout in a nutrient poor stream will eat, have to eat, anything that floats by or they'll starve.  But trout in a rich stream are selective to the point where calories don't matter.  They will allow a big, beefy inch and a half long stonefly nymph to drift by unmolested while preferentially sipping tiny mayflies one one hundredth the caloric value.  Why?  The mayflies taste better.

I believe we did the same thing.  We'd never waste time on grass seed when a buffalo was available.  Never.
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