this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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That's based on species though, so it would overrepresent unlikely encounters. I can go eat pine bark or grass on any continent and probably be A-OK.
I do wonder how that data compares with other mammals though. Is it just average, or is it significantly higher?
That is fair, but also consider that an intelligent species isn't going to be limited by chance encounters. I regularly eat bananas, but I don't live in India. I regularly eat pineapples, but I don't live in Costa Rica. Very little of my diet is comprised of food that is native to my area. As an intelligent species, we farm food en masse, ship it around the world, and plant things outside of their natural habitat.
Purely speculating, I'd wager slightly above average as a result of the thing I said about omnivores being a precursor to becoming intelligent.
That's actually a fantastic point, we change our environment to be more suitable to ourselves, including cultivating unique yet safe species. I've never heard of a poison dart frog farm, nor a field of death caps.