# Chickens and food animals

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickens-and-food-animals/514368>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 19, 2009, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickens-and-food-animals/514368 "2009-10-19T18:13:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickens-and-food-animals/514368/21 "2009-10-20T03:45:07Z")

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> [@dracoi](#):
>
> You could argue that domestication of food crops and animals has led to their wild counterparts going extinct. The native originators of corn and cows are extinct, for example.

Teosintes, the ancestors of corn, are very much alive, if not thriving.

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**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickens-and-food-animals/514368/22 "2009-10-20T14:10:15Z")

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> [@dracoi](#):
>
> Plenty of food animals have gone extinct, though no domesticated ones that I know of. Dodos are the obvious example of a species hunted to extinction for food.

Actually, the Dodo is an eminently non-obvious example, given that their meat was tough and tasted terrible. If they were routinely hunted for food, it must have been only because nothing more palatable was available.

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickens-and-food-animals/514368/23 "2009-10-20T14:26:13Z")

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> [@psychonaut](#):
>
> Actually, the Dodo is an eminently non-obvious example, given that their meat was tough and tasted terrible. If they were routinely hunted for food, it must have been only because nothing more palatable was available.

Sailors will eat anything, I believe.

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**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chickens-and-food-animals/514368/24 "2009-10-20T14:56:53Z")

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Regarding the dodo, remember, it’s not _being eaten_ that makes the dodo extinct, it’s _being killed_. If a bunch of sailors stop off and kill some dodos, then discover they are unpleasant to eat, and leaves, allowing another shipful of sailors to arrive later, kill some dodos, then discover they are more or less inedible, and so on, dodos keep dying even though no gourmet meals were enjoyed. If the sailors aren’t diligent about spreading the word, every ship will try the same thing.

Also, I believe the introduction of pigs (intentionally) and rats (an accident, but not a surprise) to the island went a long way toward killing off the dodos.

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