Phil L wrote:


no carnivores can live on just meat, or bones, offal etc - they have to have
stomach contents, IE grains, grasses and other vegetation, otherwise they
die.



MYTH: WOLVES EAT THE STOMACH CONTENTS OF THEIR PREY.

This is false! Only if the prey is small enough (like the size of a
rabbit) will they eat the stomach contents, which just happen to get
consumed with the entire animal. Otherwise, wolves will shake out the
stomach contents of their large herbivorous prey before sometimes eating
the stomach wall. Even on a common sense level this could be proven
false. Stomach acids have a pH near 1, which means they are incredibly
acidic and bitter. The acid attacking the plant matter is strong enough
to burn the enamel off teeth. Why would any self-respecting wolf
willingly stick its nose into something that will burn its skin, burn
the enamel of its teeth, and severely burn its lips and esophagus? No,
wolves do NOT eat the stomach contents of their prey. The following
quotations are taken from L. David Mech's 2003 book Wolves: Behavior,
Ecology, and Conservation. Mech (and the others who contributed to this
book) is considered the world's leading wolf biologist, and this book is
a compilation of 350 collective years of research, experiments, and
careful field observations. These quotes are taken from chapter 4, The
Wolf as a Carnivore.
"Wolves usually tear into the body cavity of large prey and...consume
the larger internal organs, such as lungs, heart, and liver. The large
rumen [, which is the main stomach compartment in large herbivores
except horses,]...is usually punctured during removal and its contents
spilled. The vegetation in the intestinal tract is of no interest to the
wolves, but the stomach lining and intestinal wall are consumed, and
their contents further strewn about the kill site." (pg.123, emphasis added)
"To grow and maintain their own bodies, wolves need to ingest all the
major parts of their herbivorous prey, except the plants in the
digestive system." (pg.124, emphasis added).
From the mouths of the wolf experts themselves, who have observed
countless numbers of kills: wolves do NOT eat the stomach contents of
their large prey, and are carnivorous animals.

http://www.angelfire.com/falcon/rawd...hcontents.html