This question came to me in the “Why do hunters hunt” thread in GD.
At what point does flesh become, or begin to become carrion? As soon as the animal dies? I know that, ideally, meat is aged before it is considered ready to eat. At least that’s my understanding of what makes beef more tender and tasty. Is this process of aging akin to decay?
I’ve smelled Omaha Steaks when raw, and they are pretty pungent.
I guess that would mean that all of us human carnivors are “carrion eaters”, just like most of the other meat eating animals.
Peace,
mangeorge (Brother Crow)
A lot of anthropologists believe that early hominids ate a lot of carrion, kinda fitting into the same nitch as hyenas - not well suited for taking down prey themselves, but able to drive predators away from their kill (by throwing rocks).
**A lot of anthropologists believe that early hominids ate a lot of carrion, kinda fitting into the same nitch as hyenas - not well suited for taking down prey themselves, but able to drive predators away from their kill (by throwing rocks). **
Carrion is defined in my dictionary as the decaying flesh of dead animals. I suppose that once an animal is butchered, dressed or hung it ceases to be just a dead animal, it’s now meat or at worst a carcass.
You should also note that there is a difference between autolysis and microbial decay. Autolysis is the process whereby the enzymes in the meat begin breaking it down and tenedrising it. This doesn’t require any external influence and begins happening as soon as the animal dies. This is hopefully what is occuring in aged and hung game meat. Microbial decay involves microbes converting the meat into their own cellular material using exosymes, and isn’t nearly as appealing or safe.
BTW I don’t know about early humans, but hyaenas are among the most effective and successful hunters in the world. They are scavengers of course, but I can’t think of too many predators that aren’t, lions included.
Hunt vs. scavenge is an energy thing. Scavenging requires much less energy than hunting. Sharks (the apex predators of the sea) are more likely to scavenge a meal than junt one down. When they do hunt, they go for the sick, weak, young, etc. Only when necessary will they expend gobs of energy to attack an healthy critter. (excluding surfers 
)
Here you go, Mangeorge. http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary
Meat stops being “meat” and becomes “carrion” when it starts to stink and thus becomes unfit for food. I’ll allow the Doper gourmets to fight it out concerning the hanging of game. A factoid floating around in my head from reading an old cookbook is that it called for pheasant to be hung “until the skin turns bluish-green and the head separates easily from the neck.” I guess one man’s meat is another man’s carrion.
A carrion eater may not eat what you consider meat as its first choice. A mink when it catches a muskrat and is able to kill it,they put up a pretty good fight, will eat the stomach contents first. Bet you didn’t know that.
I can’t add first hand knowlege of anything else that does that but I’ll bet there are quite a few.