In the "are we meant/built to eat meat" department...

Recently I stumbled across a program on Animal Planet (a cable tv station) and
they were talking about Baboons.  The voice over explained that when,
generations and generations ago, baboons moved out on to the grassy plains,
they discovered they couldn't digest the many kinds of grass seeds available
and thus they had to enlarge their diet to include meat. The program showed a
baboon hunting down a baby gazelle, catching it, and subsequently eating it.
The baboon's dexterous fingers were pointed out as assisting the animal in
making good use of this portion of its diet. I've also heard on similar
programs of other ape species eating monkeys if they can catch them.  On "The
Keepers" program last night (a show about the San Diego Zoo, also on Animal
Planet), they showed the Bonobo chimps the zoo cares for. They looked
surprisingly human (slender, walking upright frequently, very intelligent),
more so than the chimps (orangutans, spider monkeys, or lemurs, all also
intelligent) on Monkey Business, my favorite program, which ran just previous
to The Keepers. Note they all have skilled hands and sharp teeth.

Debby
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