There are lots of animals we don’t commonly eat, out of a sense of disgust (insects) or impracticality (hummingbirds) or because they don’t taste very good (carnivores?) but my understanding is that, due to common ancestry, pretty much muscle tissue is muscle tissue and liver is liver and so forth.
And, okay, there are a few animals that use poison as a weapon and so you’d have to cut out and discard poison sacs and such.
But are there any animals whose basic flesh is poisonous to humans?
For this question let’s restrict animals to things kids would point at and call an animal: mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, insects, fish, crabs and their relatives. Basically, things that move around and are big enough to see easily with the naked eye.
Whle I’m not an avid viewer, I did catch a few minutes of Bear Grylls’ show the other day and he had one of those big fat equatorial millipedes, which he smelled and said had the scent of almonds, an indicator that it had a cyanide based toxin that it would squirt when threatened. He declined to eat it, in favor of a rather noxious looking grub.
If Bear Grylls is afraid to eat something, I’m going to call that truly inedible.
Some animals eat poisonous plants, and the poison is retained throughout their bodies. It’s a common defence against predators. I would imagine that a human eating large quantities of such animals would become ill.
Would you count food that is edible for humans after being processed?
Things like Fugu, the Japanese puffer fish, deadly poisonous if prepared incorrectly, but apparently at least moderately tasty and harmless if done correctly.
Why would anyone go to so much effort and risk for something only “moderately tasty”? Do the people who enjoy this sort of food have different taste buds, or something? Is it just an acquired taste?
Carnivores being bad tasting / inedible is a huge myth. Fox meat is delicious, lynx meat (by the testimony of old-school hunters who, suspicious as hell, took part in eating what you kill back in the '70’s here when lynx kills were national news) is about the best meat one can imagine, bear meat commands a 100e / kg price at gourmet shops, and lion burger tastes just fine, according to Jared Diamond. Or just ask the Chinese pussy-munchers.
According to the Wiki entry, they secrete it onto their skin; no mention of whether it’s possible to harvest the flesh safely. Also, they create poison from prey that they eat so if you control their diet you can reduce the toxicity.
I’ve never eaten it but I’ve read about it. I think it’s just the thought of the risk, more so than the taste pe se.
That might be a good contender. They process hydrogen sulfide via bacteria in their cells. I’m not certain if that makes them toxic or not, but I’m betting yes on this one.
I can personally attest that bear meat is tasty: A friend of my grandfather’s once killed one in self-defense, and shared the meat. A bit on the greasy side, but good. The primary reason that humans don’t eat carnivores (much) isn’t flavor, but cost: It would take a lot of pounds of meat to raise each pound of meat. Why not just eat whatever you’re feeding the carnivore, yourself?
According to the Wikipedia article (which admittedly indicates that the factual accuracy is disputed) “While chiri is much more likely to cause death, sashimi fugu often causes intoxication, light-headedness, and numbness of the lips, and is often eaten for this reason.”
The host of Weird Foods (Or is it Bizarre Foods?) on the Food Network had some fugu on one episode. He said that he’d had it before and it always numbed the tongue.
