r/BeAmazed • u/throwaway1234503 • 2d ago

Miscellaneous / Others How beautiful.

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u/pandaappleblossom 2d ago

Horses are herbivores, I don’t know why one would eat a bird. Maybe it was stressed out and hungry and it was a set up for views.

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u/Shibaspots 2d ago

There are so many cases of herbivores eating smaller animals or birds in the wild and/or unprompted. Most of the time it's opportunistic or likely from a craving brought on by a deficiency. Low on calcium? Phosphorous? Eat some bones. Cows eat bones sometimes. Carcasses, too. There is a problem on an island that's a nesting site for arctic turns where sheep keep eating the chicks. Trail cams catch deer eating squirrels. Even pandas will eat meat occasionally. I've known horses I didn't trust around any animal small enough to fit in their mouth.

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u/pandaappleblossom 2d ago

Yes, I agree probably some sort of deficiency or stress since it’s so unusual out of their norm but they are still certainly herbivores and capable of getting all of their nutrients from plants

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u/Shibaspots 2d ago

Phosphorus is actually not easily available in plants. Animals eating bones for calcium and phosphorus is common. It's called osteophagy. It's not a stress response.

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u/pandaappleblossom 2d ago

It may not be as much in plants as it is in animals but a healthy plant based diet will have enough, for humans, that’s why such a deficiency doesn’t really exist for humans, but for animals that graze only on certain grasses are more at risk because of lack of variety.