Are all animals edible?

[Kaos116]

From a prue survival scenario. Are all animals edible? The thread in the Hunting section about crow hunting got me thinking. No one seems to eat them, but it sounded as it is a 'taste' thing.

Are there any animals/birds/fish in New England that are poisonous or would make you sick if eaten?

 

[doobie]

i wouldn't recommend skunk. Some seafoods might more of an issue (being from near the ocean), but I don't know for animals

 

[packingungal]

Cane toads and the hawksbill turtle - bad, bad, bad.

animals and fish poisonous to eat
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/survival/guide/plantsanimals/animals/animals_08.html

 

[Mike-Mike]

Crows are a public nuisance thats why you can shoot them. I would have to be pretty hungry to eat a seagull.

 

[jhblaze1]

I'd stay away from poison dart frogs.

 

[Chuck Would]

Depends on just how hungry you are.

 

[Admin]

Depends on just how hungry you are.

+1 If you are starving you can eat any animal that lives in New England.

 

[jdubois]

Are there any animals/birds/fish in New England that are poisonous or would make you sick if eaten?

By "animals" do you mean mammals?

 

[Mike-Mike]

Sea Gull Survival recipe:

Start a fire and heat up a baseball sized rock. Gut out the seagull and insert the rock and let it sit for 45 min covered with leaves etc.

After 45 min remove the rock, discard the bird and eat the rock.

--Mike

 

[Brian48]

I was an aggressor in SERE school for a short time when I was in the Marines. From what I'm told, the general rule of thumb is that anything with fur is edible, with the exception of polar bear liver which is toxic (probably due to the salt water intake). Birds, reptiles, and insects, for the most part "can be", but there are a lot more exceptions. Basically, stick with mammals if possible or when in doubt.

 

[pj150]

Cook the dickens out of wild game before before consuming. Best to stew or braise the meat to ensure complete cooking. Try not to eat the organs or bones. Most of the toxins accumulate there. Keep utensils and game cleaning areas sanitized. It's best to eviscerate and skin the animal in the field, bag and transport using a insulated game bag or cooler. Use disposable latex gloves. You never know what kind of microbes or parasites are hanging on the exterior and interior of the animal.

You don't need to contract any flesh eating bacteria or some internal degenerative disease.

BTW, Crows are edible but not palatable. The skin and meat are just like the feathers, black as tar. Tastes much like liver and you can't do much to hide it. I make it second to the unpleasantness of sea ducks. Eider, brant and old squaw although fun shooting, are terrible for eating. Don't have anyone tell you different.

 

[one-eyed Jack]

My favorites are the Spotted Owl and the California Condor. Jack.

 

[KMaurer]

I was an aggressor in SERE school for a short time when I was in the Marines. From what I'm told, the general rule of thumb is that anything with fur is edible, with the exception of polar bear liver which is toxic (probably due to the salt water intake). Birds, reptiles, and insects, for the most part "can be", but there are a lot more exceptions. Basically, stick with mammals if possible or when in doubt.

It's not actually toxic, but it has such a high concentration of Vitamin A that it's easy to get an overdose, which can be fatal. As I recall, grubs are a good source of protein, and not all that bad.

Ken

 

[Kaos116]

By "animals" do you mean mammals?

Yes, mammals. When I wrote the OP early this morning I hadn't added fish and birds. It was a last minute edit and I never changed 'animals' to 'mammals'.

Depends on just how hungry you are.

Completely agree. I just didn't know if anything in New England was bad.

.... Try not to eat the organs or bones. Most of the toxins accumulate there....

That I wouldn't have known. I would have figured it would be a good source of nutrition. Livers, hearts and such.

Sea Gull Survival recipe:

Start a fire and heat up a baseball sized rock. Gut out the seagull and insert the rock and let it sit for 45 min covered with leaves etc.

After 45 min remove the rock, discard the bird and eat the rock.

That's great!

+1 If you are starving you can eat any animal that lives in New England.

That's what I was thinking, but wasn't sure.

Thanks everyone!

 

[maverick44]

Most, However Not All

You can always tell the edible types by watching what eats them.

Shoot a animal and leave it in plain sight of other animals and birds if they come and start eating then you may consider it safe.

how do I make my question mark icon into a picture?

 

[Hoppy]

as people said anything with fur will have edible meat. stay away from livers, bones, marrow, ANYTHING to do with the spinal cord or brain. its just not worth the risks

obviously bladders and intestines shouldn't be eaten

i cant think of any bird in the NE you cant eat.

most snakes can be eaten if you avoid the venom glands which are in the head

um. frogs? i donno

 

[theGringo]

Sea Gull Survival recipe:

Start a fire and heat up a baseball sized rock. Gut out the seagull and insert the rock and let it sit for 45 min covered with leaves etc.

After 45 min remove the rock, discard the bird and eat the rock.

--Mike

I read a similar "recipe' for preparing a bear roast. It was long and complex, and included a lengthy marinade, performed in several stages. I read the recipe in earnest, only to reach the last step:

"Discard the meat and eat the cast iron pot".

 

[JonJ]

I read a similar "recipe' for preparing a bear roast. It was long and complex, and included a lengthy marinade, performed in several stages. I read the recipe in earnest, only to reach the last step:

"Discard the meat and eat the cast iron pot".

I've seen the last step as Throw out the meat and order Chinese.

Some say squirrel is good others say it's horrible. Anyone have anything to say about this?

 

[jdubois]

BTW, Crows are edible but not palatable. The skin and meat are just like the feathers, black as tar. Tastes much like liver and you can't do much to hide it.

Sounds like puffin. I like puffin. I might have to get myself a crow or two. But then I like the taste of liver

 

[ztp]

All freshwater fish are edible. Some salt water fish are poisonous.

 

[pj150]

Some say squirrel is good others say it's horrible. Anyone have anything to say about this?

Others can jump in but from what I remember, I'd say squirrel meat is a cross between pork and chicken. Mild flavored and not bad. Very similar to rabbit.

 

[stixnstones]

few universal answers

Not all animals are edible and there are few universal answers. FM21-76 (the US Army field manual on survival) has errors. The so-called universal plant edibility test isn't accurate.

It says all birds are edible, but as others have mentioned they may be unpalatable and usually needs thorough cooking. The diets of sea birds and carrion eaters such as vultures make them and those who eat them susceptable certain diseases as are corvids such as jays, crows and ravens. Mice can carry hanta virus, bats typhus and prairie dogs plague. Again, not universally.

I tend to disagree about universally eating organs - many cultures eat every part of the pig except the oink! Some sources say that eating all of rabbit may stave off so-called "rabbit starvation," where the body doesn't get enough fat on a diet of pure lean meat and consumes itself anyway. You waste away fed. Plus bones are full of marrow.

Spots on liver or kidneys can be symptomatic of a sick animal.

I've eaten bugs. I've eaten dishes made with blood, lungs, liver and kidneys. In many cases, they were pretty good. Of course, edible doesn't mean tasty.

Oh yeah, and edible plants don't run away.

 

[MassHack]

Don't eat Rabbit anymore, heard about Maxamatosis? In Ireland . Causes the game to go blind as well as others. Not worth the risk.

 

[Hoppy]

Plus bones are full of marrow.

marrows a host of alot of disease including Chronic Waste in deer and Spongiform (mad cow) in cows

not immediately fatal but is not a pretty end

 

[maverick44]

Puffin

Sounds like puffin. I like puffin. I might have to get myself a crow or two. But then I like the taste of liver

I was watching a show on national geograpic where Anthony Zimmerman went to Greenland to hunt Puffins and Barbie Q them. they used nets.

There are puffins in Maine and Neauveau Scocita.
Maybe you can hunt them there?


here is a Puffin site in target

 

[codenamepaul]

Most diseases (mad cow, CWD, and even Bovine Tuberculosis) are destroyed by a thorough cooking. We are talking survival here not cuisine, remember? Organs are, by far, the biggest bang for the buck regarding nutrition. Look at any carnivorous animal-what is it they go for first? The guts. Heart,liver,kidney-all edible, nutritious and usually tasty. Cold weather school we gutted a rabbit and boiled the whole gutbag minus bladder and colon/intestine. Tasted like liver stew, it had consistancy of snot with some dirt in it with an occasional chunk of meat mixed in. All in all, not too awful, but not something I would go out of my way to have for dinner.

And squirrel is a fine dish-mainly stew though. Eating them whole is too much like eating crab-negative calorie undertaking. pj150 hit the nail dead nuts. Very mild, not unlike chicken dark meat.

 

[stixnstones]

Don't eat Rabbit anymore, heard about Maxamatosis? In Ireland . Causes the game to go blind as well as others. Not worth the risk.

Hadn't heard that one. Add it to the risk list. However, in a survival situation, you weigh the risks and make a choice based on the the fix you're in and the cost/benefit of doing A or B.

 

[stixnstones]

marrows a host of alot of disease including Chronic Waste in deer and Spongiform (mad cow) in cows

not immediately fatal but is not a pretty end

Yup, I don't think they're sure whether or not cooking kills prions. But on the plus side, there is always the species barrier. Not every bug can go through its host to infect humans. Anyone caught 'mad opossum' disease?

 

[MrsWildweasel]

Others can jump in but from what I remember, I'd say squirrel meat is a cross between pork and chicken. Mild flavored and not bad. Very similar to rabbit.

Doesn't taste like either. It is good though. Glenn has a recipe for Ozark Mountain Squirrel. It also has rabbit in it.

 

[MrsWildweasel]

Yup, I don't think they're sure whether or not cooking kills prions. But on the plus side, there is always the species barrier. Not every bug can go through its host to infect humans. Anyone caught 'mad opossum' disease?

After living over seas, we've had the joy of possibly having mad cow. Definitely not worried about it.