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it's hard to phrase, but in the "wild", how do predators (either man or animal) eat their prey. in a blog about bone marrow, sisson states that the order is marrow, liver, kidney's heart, muscle meat... leaving out all sorts of parts such as the other glands, testes, sweetbreads, brain, etc as well as intestines. where can i see some good info on this?

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 I highly doubt any animal would go for the marrow first, other than humans... I mean they'd just sit there gnawing on it right? we on the other hand got these fancy five finger appendages and know how to smash things with rocks. – Daniel Apr 16 2011 at 1:26
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 I know that lions, for example, can't get at the marrow. Hyenas clean up after the lions, devouring the marrow, bones and collagen. Early human ancestors went after the marrow too. – Chickenosaurus Rex Apr 16 2011 at 1:49
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 yeah, humans are such a bizarre animal that what other animals do is not likely to be that relevant – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Apr 16 2011 at 13:16
I don't think hyenas clean up after lions. I'm pretty sure that's a common misconception. I was reading Sapolsky recently and he talked about how hyenas do the hunting and lions poach their food. – conciliator Nov 7 2011 at 23:35
Spotted hyenas hunt and kill more of their own food than lions do, their hunts are successful more often than lions' (since they are endurance hunters, not ambush hunters) - and lions scavenge hyena kills much more often than hyenas scavenge lion kills. In the Ngorongoro, lions steal over 90% of their food from hyenas! In summary, spotted hyenas are predators who can also crush bone...and "The Lion King" is just as accurate as Dr. Oz. – J. Stanton - gnolls.org Nov 8 2011 at 2:49

5 Answers

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Keep in mind, the order of which is consumed would be in line with the greater amount of energy gained though consumption with the least expended through the process. It would depend on which animal is eating which.

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I know killer whales typically eat the tongue first and then the lips. Sometimes they only eat that...

Brown bears eat their prey alive and don't have a pattern of consumption.

There is LOTS of info on wikipedia, like this page on wolves (heart, liver, lungs and stomach lining.).

It's interesting because we think of wild predators (and hunter-gatherers) as only killing what they need and using everything, but if they did that there would be nothing for the scavengers.

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Orcas eat the tongue and lips of what? Orcas specialize on different prey. Some like otter, for example, and they certainly can't gently pry the tongue out of an otter. The same is true of, oh, seals, sea lions, sharks, penguins, and just about anything else they eat except for maybe other whales. Also, none of those animals really have lips. And the energetic requirement of an Orca are way too great to be eating just a tongue. That said, they have been seen just picking out the liver from a great white shark, but that is an awfully big liver, more calories than a harbor seal tongue. – RG73 Apr 16 2011 at 5:41
Of larger whales. – Bread-Eating Beelzebub Apr 16 2011 at 13:16
Also dolphins. And seals. – Nance Nov 7 2011 at 19:27
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My dogs and cats always ate the head of the critters they caught and killed first. Sometimes this was all they ate. Guess we don't have many dogs and cats allowed to hunt anymore huh?

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there's a couple links here http://paleohacks.com/questions/19635/organ-eating-pattern-of-wild-animals#axzz1V7A46ZGr

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To the devil goes the hindmost.

It all depends where you are in the pecking order. The fearless hero got the heart, probably, just as a matter of ritual. The slaves got the chitlins. Between those two, it would change day-to-day, case-by-case, I bet.

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