Chicken are known to eat millipedes, centipedes, snakes, scorpions, toads etc. many of them are
deadly for humans.
Isn’t it true, though, that things like snake/centipede/spider/scorpion venom are only dangerous to humans if injected directly into the bloodstream, and that if they are ingested, the stomach acids render them harmless? In fact, I think there are people in Haiti who rub scorpion venom onto the skin as a form of medicine; supposedly helps the immune system or whatnot.
Mostly, yes. Millipedes and amphibians, on the other hand, tend to stick to poisons rather than venoms (as do some insects, like the Spanish fly!)
A survival tip is watch and eat which fruits, particularly berries animals, particularly mammals eat. In general, they’re likely safe to eat. However, you should always eat one or two at first and wait to see if it upsets your system before chowing down.
In my area, we have box turtles. I enjoy turtle soup (the only good reason snapping turtles should exist), but word on he street is that thou shall not eat box turtles. It seems that there are poisonous (to humans) mushrooms that box turtles can eat with no ill effects, which answers the OP, but the toxins stay in the turtles muscle tissue. The result is that you can safely eat 9 out of 10, but 1 out of 10 will kill you.
Amanita muscaria is supposedly toxic to humans, but caribou/reindeer can eat it fine. Then their urine passes on the psychoactive fun to humans, if you can stomach it.
In reality it appears that it is mildly toxic to humans, a bit of boiling and discarding of the water makes it edible.
I was going to say that Toyon berries are toxic to humans, but birds eat them all the time and the seeds end up in their poop, scattered & fertilized at the same time.
Then I checked and found that they’re edible if you cook them first, and we eat other stuff that has to be cooked first, so I guess it doesn’t count.
There are a of foods that become less or non-toxic to humans when cooked. While it won’t kill you, eating a raw potato probably won’t agree with the tummies of those not used to to.
We might also mention “mad” or toxic honey. There are some plants that are toxic to humans, but don’t bother bees who collect nectar from them. Rhododendron, again, and related plants:
The currently fashionable and expensive manuka honey from New Zealand is also susceptible to winding up toxic if the bees find too many tutu shrubs instead of manuka trees. Unfortunately, these tend to grow in the same areas as the manuka tree, and you can’t exactly train the bees to stay away from them. Currently, New Zealand requires that all honey for export be tested for tutin.
(This was a plot point in an episode of the NZ TV series “Brokenwood”, BTW)
We’re also the only animals that must get vitamin C externally (vs making our own). I wonder if there’s a connection…
[quote=“nearwildheaven, post:21, topic:826251”]
Not only can camels go a long time without drinking water, they too can eat things people can’t. Small wonder this video has had 8 million views.
[/QUOTE]Heh. This guy gave it a shot!
I saw some Manuka honey just yesterday on CostCo and I wondered what the hell it was. I guess I’m behind the curve.
I dunno, man. I’m no expert on cactus-eating (although I’ve noshed nopales) but the warning at the beginning of the video says cactus it not poisonous but despite the myth that you can stave off thirst by lopping the top off of a barrel cactus and squeezing the liquid from the pulp, the stuff tastes bitter. That to me says alkaloids which can be very bad for you.
A “superfood”. I.e. a scam. Like the taste? Great. But it’s not gonna cure cancer. Apparently it’s sometimes counterfeit, though I think Costco is probably one of the more trustworthy sources.
You can with some cactus, like barrel cactus. And prickly pear is eaten commonly, both the fruit and pads (nopal).
Dragonfruit are also a cactus product, specifically, the fruit of one.
Look at it this way - if it’s counterfeit, at least it’s probably not actually from New Zealand, and won’t be contaminated with the toxin from the shrub. Which is potent enough that there have been a few deaths from eating tutin contaminated honey, not just illness. Hence, the testing requirement by the NZ government.
Well, honey can be used on certain wounds to heal. And perhaps, maybe Manuka honey might be better. A couple of small studies have apparently given promising results, but others- not so much.
So, I guess if you have a foot ulcer, and it’s not healing, go ahead and consult your MD and maybe give it a try. Medical grade, not what you put in your rea.
One benefit is that of course it wont lead to resistant bacteria.
As I said, I’ve eaten nopales, both pickled and raw, and it was not noticeably bitter. Barrel cactus, OTOH, is the poster child for both the “drink a cactus” meme, presumably because it is easier to lop the top off of one than a saguaro’s, and the “it’s all bullshit” meme.
There’s quite a bit of evidence that it will poison some bees as well- bees from the local area where the plants are native are fine with it, as are some bumble bee species, but there’s a lot of introduced Rhododendron in the UK and when experimentally fed the nectar, European honeybees die.