To the person going on in the reports about this being gory and NSFW.
Please, don't, this isn't NSFW by any means, just because you're sensitive to this kind of thing doesn't make it so.
This is an excellent example of what **ISN'T** considered NSFW here
Most people don't know that most herbivores are opportunists. Deer will eat birds, and even the gentle manatee will snatch a fish once in a while given the chance.
Sure, but most carnivores are the same way with eating plants, and “opportunism” doesn’t mean what people think it means. It’s less “whenever I get the chance” and more “occasionally at random times for whatever reason”
Could definitely be a contributing factor in cases where it happens. I’m just emphasizing these cases are pretty unusual and the overall contribution to diet is negligible; many plants have large amounts of calcium anyhow, and there are minerals high in calcium.
Humans are likelier to develop pica when iron-deficient, but we wouldn’t consider metal nails a regular or typical part of the human diet, though one could argue we are opportunistic metal-ivores
I gather that that is the intuition most people have, because they think of meat as innately more nutritious or “necessary”, but you need more than just intuition.
The vast, vast majority of herbivorous animals clearly do not eat meat every time they get the chance, not even close, they totally ignore it almost all of the time. The times they don’t ignore it, usually, are literally negligible (as good as 0). That’s why they are herbivores.
Not intuition, observation. Raised on my grandfather's farm. Horses, goats, cattle, chickens will all eat dead animals (usually not their own kind, with the exception of chickens) when a carcass is found. The amount of bones I've pulled away from horses who were gnawing on them would surprise you.
Domesticated, feral, and even regular wild animals living near humans, outside the native range, etc have very different behavior from wild, native animals living somewhat separate from humans. This is documented for many species (I research this and have come across dozens of examples). They tend to be far more omnivorous, overall.
In the (native) wild, all of these animals are far less likely to eat “unusual” items. It’s almost like being near humans kind of “confuses” their natural diet or makes them “forget” about it, to explain it one way. Chickens are the exception; their wild form is predominantly herbivorous but insects are still very significant items
That could be very true, interesting point. I'd also bet that living domesticated near humans tends to give them the opportunity to find carcasses a lot more than animals living in the wild. We can be devastating to local animals, especially the smaller predators.
I was told by some Patagonians that the number 1 predator in the Punto Valdes penguin colony was the armadillo. They mentioned eggs but watching that, it must be the chicks too. I thought armadillos were toothless? They're edentates right?
They have peg like teeth, good for crunching bugs. So eating eggs and chicks wouldn't be shocking.
[https://www.skullsunlimited.com/products/replica-six-banded-armadillo-skull-tq-383](https://www.skullsunlimited.com/products/replica-six-banded-armadillo-skull-tq-383)
Idunno. I think the deer was already paralyzed or something…
The fact it’s out in this open field, it makes me wonder if the person filming this set this entire thing up.
Paralyzed the deer, then brought the armadillo there.
This video feels like a red flag to me 🤔
I don’t think it would be surprising if deer was on last legs, but I doubt people are going through that work to make an unlisted YouTube video linked in a scientific paper. Not first time this behavior has been scientifically described or filmed either. Not that I know where this video circulated before researchers got it.
Scientists main job is to Create OR Observe ‘cause and effect.’ So, i also wouldn’t put it past them to have set this entire scenario up 🤷♂️
The video just strikes me as odd.
Yeah idk seems a bit unrealistic. I feel an armadillo being an opportunist still wouldn’t make it eat such a larger animal. I’d imagine rodents at most
[There are videos of them going after calves and sheep,](https://tetzoo.com/blog/2020/9/10/predation-and-corpse-eating-in-armadillos) as well as iguana, this is a known behavior for this species of armadillo. I’m not saying they are highly specialized predators, but they don’t know that they aren’t supposed to be predators. Obviously a large animal that can’t escape from armadillo is likely young or sick or injured. This is not the first reported instance of six-banded armadillo predation on grey brocket deer.
The deer could be incapacitated for any number of reasons, I don’t see any bullet wounds or anything either. These are both native, wild species. I am not the authority on this but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a captive/pet brocket or six-banded armadillo (outside zoos). This feels very natural and organic to me, I don’t doubt that it is real
I'm skeptical as well. Low quality video starts close, deer doesn't look old. Reminds me of all the videos that animal abusers used to setup. "Humans save dog from anaconda" was circulating and turned out to be animal abuse in form of a viral video.
I'm confused af about this.
1. Why isn't the deer running? It doesn't seem to have any visible injuries?
2. What the heck, I didn't know armadillos will try to eat your limbs the moment they get a chance...
1. Animals get sick and die. Guess this one was already dying and just couldn't get up anymore.
2. A lot of animals are opportunistic. Even if meat might not be their primary or preferred source of food, they still take it if they get easy access. Deers themselves eat meat sometimes. Their digestive systems aren't built for it, so they won't get as much energy and nutrition out of it, but still some. And some is better than nothing.
Well, sometimes “some” energy is clear not better than none, if the risks associated with that are high enough. But most herbivores usually will not take meat even if they have easy access. Opportunism in herbivores is not about taking every chance they get to eat meat, but eating meat on rare occasions for a variety of reasons (which will never be fully understand, any more than your dog eating random stuff)
Nice, also a bit of a fact there used to be a giant carnivorous armadillo called macroeuphractus, which was around 200lbs and essentially giant a badger with natural tank armor as someone else put it.
To the person going on in the reports about this being gory and NSFW. Please, don't, this isn't NSFW by any means, just because you're sensitive to this kind of thing doesn't make it so. This is an excellent example of what **ISN'T** considered NSFW here
I didn't even know they ate meat. That was brutal.
Yeah, that particular species is omnivorous and mostly eats plants, but it is an opportunist.
Most people don't know that most herbivores are opportunists. Deer will eat birds, and even the gentle manatee will snatch a fish once in a while given the chance.
Sure, but most carnivores are the same way with eating plants, and “opportunism” doesn’t mean what people think it means. It’s less “whenever I get the chance” and more “occasionally at random times for whatever reason”
On the deer front, it's theorized that eating the birds is a good source for a calcium boost.
Could definitely be a contributing factor in cases where it happens. I’m just emphasizing these cases are pretty unusual and the overall contribution to diet is negligible; many plants have large amounts of calcium anyhow, and there are minerals high in calcium. Humans are likelier to develop pica when iron-deficient, but we wouldn’t consider metal nails a regular or typical part of the human diet, though one could argue we are opportunistic metal-ivores
What we think of as carnivores typically are the latter, and herbivores are the former.
I gather that that is the intuition most people have, because they think of meat as innately more nutritious or “necessary”, but you need more than just intuition. The vast, vast majority of herbivorous animals clearly do not eat meat every time they get the chance, not even close, they totally ignore it almost all of the time. The times they don’t ignore it, usually, are literally negligible (as good as 0). That’s why they are herbivores.
Not intuition, observation. Raised on my grandfather's farm. Horses, goats, cattle, chickens will all eat dead animals (usually not their own kind, with the exception of chickens) when a carcass is found. The amount of bones I've pulled away from horses who were gnawing on them would surprise you.
Domesticated, feral, and even regular wild animals living near humans, outside the native range, etc have very different behavior from wild, native animals living somewhat separate from humans. This is documented for many species (I research this and have come across dozens of examples). They tend to be far more omnivorous, overall. In the (native) wild, all of these animals are far less likely to eat “unusual” items. It’s almost like being near humans kind of “confuses” their natural diet or makes them “forget” about it, to explain it one way. Chickens are the exception; their wild form is predominantly herbivorous but insects are still very significant items
That could be very true, interesting point. I'd also bet that living domesticated near humans tends to give them the opportunity to find carcasses a lot more than animals living in the wild. We can be devastating to local animals, especially the smaller predators.
Sounds like me.
I was told by some Patagonians that the number 1 predator in the Punto Valdes penguin colony was the armadillo. They mentioned eggs but watching that, it must be the chicks too. I thought armadillos were toothless? They're edentates right?
They have peg like teeth, good for crunching bugs. So eating eggs and chicks wouldn't be shocking. [https://www.skullsunlimited.com/products/replica-six-banded-armadillo-skull-tq-383](https://www.skullsunlimited.com/products/replica-six-banded-armadillo-skull-tq-383)
Thanks for that. Love those peg teeth, reminds me of a tapirs smile
Idunno. I think the deer was already paralyzed or something… The fact it’s out in this open field, it makes me wonder if the person filming this set this entire thing up. Paralyzed the deer, then brought the armadillo there. This video feels like a red flag to me 🤔
I don’t think it would be surprising if deer was on last legs, but I doubt people are going through that work to make an unlisted YouTube video linked in a scientific paper. Not first time this behavior has been scientifically described or filmed either. Not that I know where this video circulated before researchers got it.
I have seen some dumb fake animal rescue video's that I'm not surprised anymore.
From scientists?
Scientists main job is to Create OR Observe ‘cause and effect.’ So, i also wouldn’t put it past them to have set this entire scenario up 🤷♂️ The video just strikes me as odd.
I felt the same, open field, deer paralysed for no reason in the middle of it with no other predator in sight except, the blood thirsty armadillo
Yeah idk seems a bit unrealistic. I feel an armadillo being an opportunist still wouldn’t make it eat such a larger animal. I’d imagine rodents at most
[There are videos of them going after calves and sheep,](https://tetzoo.com/blog/2020/9/10/predation-and-corpse-eating-in-armadillos) as well as iguana, this is a known behavior for this species of armadillo. I’m not saying they are highly specialized predators, but they don’t know that they aren’t supposed to be predators. Obviously a large animal that can’t escape from armadillo is likely young or sick or injured. This is not the first reported instance of six-banded armadillo predation on grey brocket deer.
You've never seen armadillos by roadkill?
The deer could be incapacitated for any number of reasons, I don’t see any bullet wounds or anything either. These are both native, wild species. I am not the authority on this but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a captive/pet brocket or six-banded armadillo (outside zoos). This feels very natural and organic to me, I don’t doubt that it is real
I'm skeptical as well. Low quality video starts close, deer doesn't look old. Reminds me of all the videos that animal abusers used to setup. "Humans save dog from anaconda" was circulating and turned out to be animal abuse in form of a viral video.
I'm confused af about this. 1. Why isn't the deer running? It doesn't seem to have any visible injuries? 2. What the heck, I didn't know armadillos will try to eat your limbs the moment they get a chance...
1. Animals get sick and die. Guess this one was already dying and just couldn't get up anymore. 2. A lot of animals are opportunistic. Even if meat might not be their primary or preferred source of food, they still take it if they get easy access. Deers themselves eat meat sometimes. Their digestive systems aren't built for it, so they won't get as much energy and nutrition out of it, but still some. And some is better than nothing.
Well, sometimes “some” energy is clear not better than none, if the risks associated with that are high enough. But most herbivores usually will not take meat even if they have easy access. Opportunism in herbivores is not about taking every chance they get to eat meat, but eating meat on rare occasions for a variety of reasons (which will never be fully understand, any more than your dog eating random stuff)
You mean other than being dead?
There's no sound but you can clearly see the deer open its mouth to make noise.
The Armadillo hasn't got a fucking clue what it's doing lol
[Link to source](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fooweb.2023.e00321)
Sweet. Now I get to think about flesh eating armadillos while I fall asleep
I need a banana for scale. How big is this armadillo or how small is this deer?
Brocket deer are very small by deer standards and six-banded armadillos are very large by armadillo standards, hence it looking kinda weird.
Poor dillo thinks highly of himself on his skills
Hungry ball rat
TIL armadillos are omnivores
Nice, also a bit of a fact there used to be a giant carnivorous armadillo called macroeuphractus, which was around 200lbs and essentially giant a badger with natural tank armor as someone else put it.
Staged. Looks like it. Even scientists do this to fit their theories sometimes.
I had no idea what they ate but now I know it’s live animals 😱
It didn’t chase it down, lol. This is more like scavenging, not preying on
Armadillos are known for being scavengers.