Is chewing cud "eating"?
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leece
Seems silly to ask but...
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davidbygott
moderator
Technically yes. If you can see chewing action, sure. But I think the majority of people will score just the obviously heads-down animals as eating. Very often, the cud chewer is too distant to tell, or its head is out of the picture!
Scientists, comment?
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hayvel
two buffalos chewing here : ASG0013pb7 I didn't mark them "eating"....
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leece
Yes, I had an impala right in the camera very obviously chewing. Okay, if I see more behaviour like that, I'll mark 'em as eating, thank you.
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leece
http://talk.snapshotserengeti.org/#/subjects/ASG001829l munch munch munch
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AowlanCrystal
moderator
if they were chewing, heads up or laying down or had food in their mouth but head up, I marked them as eating, not just those with heads down and depends on what they were doing also, maybe added resting/standing/walking.
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tillydad
moderator
I have always disliked marking the animals as eating because of the ambiguity of the word. I feel that the scientists would wish us to mark the animals when they were feeding ie taking the food from it's source rather than when they were eating, ie chewing the cud. The location of an animal feeding may be far removed from where it is eating. Just my thoughts, but it would be interesting to hear from a scientist regarding this.
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leece
Interesting point.
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gross691
We would not consider chewing cud to be eating.
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gardenmaeve
Where does this leave us, then., please?
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tillydad
moderator
in response to gardenmaeve's comment.
None the wiser ! 😃
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gardenmaeve
LOL.
Ok - chewing the cud is an important part of eating for ungulates. I'll count all such observed behavior as eating until told otherwise!
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