When Fruit Is Scarce, These Monkeys Hunt Animals

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• Hacker News
• there was a recent story about squirrels in rural California opportunistically hunting and eating field mice and vols that's due to an explosion the latters' population and high availability. Not driven by scarcity of default food sources.
  by fitsumbelay
• I was taught this in school thirty years ago. Is this not a known thing?
  by hinkley
• FWIW, many birds eat other birds - not just raptors and carrion eaters. I just read the book "A Bird's IQ", which has many references to it.
  by HarHarVeryFunny
• > Among primatologists, bearded capuchins are famous for using stone tools to obtain food. They’ve been observed placing palm nuts on a hard surface and smashing them with rocks to reveal the tasty kernels inside. Wild females have also been seen using sticks or blades of grass to pick their noses and eat any boogers they extract.

  why would eating boogers be a selective advantage? They eat each other's boogers as well? the wild males are never observed participating?

  by DoctorOetker
• I suspect it is not just when fruit is scarce many if not most primates are omnivores. Fruit is likely easier than meat most of the time but meat contains dense nutrients. Macaques e.g crab eating macaques routinely eat meat.
  by morpheos137
• Related somewhat: ground squirrels in Bay Area park started actively started hunting voles.

  https://www.ucdavis.edu/climate/news/carnivorous-feeding-squ...

  by lxe
• Once a horse gets a taste for baby chicks, it's hard to convince them they aren't omnivorous.
  by kleton
• Conversely, when animals are scarce, wolves will eat lots of blueberries.

  https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-wolves-may-be-helping-...

  by strictnein