Do elephants eat meat? or Are they vegetarians?
106058
Elephants are vegitarians. (aka herbivores)
559846
(m)\n\nUnlike Asian elephants, in which only males have tusks, both male and female African elephants are tusked. However, due to the hunting pressure on tusked animals brought about by poaching for ivory, tusklessness is an increasingly common condition in African elephants. \n\nElephants use their tusks to pry bark off trees or dig for roots, and in social encounters as an instrument of display or as a weapon\n\nHumans grow two sets of teeth in their lifetimes - the rootless "milk teeth" of childhood and the second, rooted set of teeth which are supposed to last into old age. With the amount of food elephants eat every day, their teeth wear down at alarming rates, and that's why they grow not two but six sets of chewing teeth (molars) in their lifetimes. Tusks do not wear out so fast, so an elephant does not grow more than one set in its life. In fact, tusks are rootless, just like human milk teeth. However, they do continue to grow in length throughout the lifetime of the elephant
307893
It really depends. Vegetarians can get their protein from beans, nuts, tofu or dairy products. So they can in some cases consume more protein than someone who eats meat.\n\nSo there isn't a real answer to your question.
394902
Yes. In addition to their large evergrowing incisors (the tusks), they have massive molars with a crushing surface that looks like one of those old washing tables. They have 6 upper and 6 lower molariforms on each side, but only 2 of them are functioning at a given time. The others are inside the alveoli in the skull and jaw bone and come out after the first ones get completely worn. They don't have more than those 6 replacements, so when their last molars are worn, they cannot grind food (old elephants in zoos need a special soft diet).\n\nHere's a photograph showing the crushing surface of the molar teeth:\nhttp://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/skulls/loxodonta/l._africana/163809.tooth.jpg/view.html\n\nAnd a frontal view of the skull with the incisors:\nhttp://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/zoology/bagful/1971A.JPG
678863
Young elephants eat the feces of their mother to obtain the necessary bacteria for the proper digestion of the vegetation found on the savannah. When they are born, their intestines do not contain these bacteria. Without them, these elephants would be unable to get any nutritional value from plants
1138559
African Bush Elephants have in fact gored and killed Black Rhinos before. It's the only animal that can kill it and they found holes in the carcass where it was obvious it was gored to death.
799001
I like veggies. I don't believe God really cares about you being a vegetarian. As for the dominion we have it without slaughtering animals. Adam and Eve never ate meat in the garden of eden only afterwards did God say that you could. So having dominion is control of them(Which we still do).
875430
No :-)\n\nBeing a vegetarian is not always accepted in today's world of meat and fast foods.  Many have been trained to think we have to have meat.  We don't.  However, if being a vegetarian becomes you choice, make yourself aware of how to get the minerals or vitamins that meat generally gives you.  Easier then you might think :-)
441203
http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php?showtopic=8724\nMust Buddhists be vegetarian?\n\nNo.\n\nWhy the fuss then?\n\nThough the Buddha never made it a compulsory rule that all His followers have to be vegetarians, He strongly encouraged us to be. In the Bodhisattva practice of minimising harm to all beings and benefiting them as much as possible, the practice of vegetarianism as far as possible plays an essential role. We can see this in many of the Buddha's recorded teachings.\n\n\n\n“The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great Compassion.”\n\n\n-Mahaparinirvana Sutra (The Buddha)\n\n"...Ananda, I permit the bhiksus (monks) to eat only the five kinds of pure flesh* which are the product of my transcendental power of transformation and not of animal slaughter. You, Brahman, live in a country where vegetables do not grow because it is too damp and hot and because of all the gravel and rock. I use my spiritual power of compassion to provide you with illusory meat to satisfy your appetite. How then, after my nirvana, can you eat the flesh of living beings and so pretend to be my disciple?..."\n\n\n"...All monks who live purely and all Bodhisattvas always refrain even from walking on grass; how can they agree to uproot it? How then can those who practise great Compassion feed on the flesh and blood of living beings?..."\n\n”...How can a monk, who hopes to become a deliverer of others, himself be living on the flesh of sentient beings?...”\n\n\n”...If a man can (control) his body and mind and thereby refrains from eating animal products, I say he will really be liberated. This teaching of mine is that of the Buddha whereas any others that of evil demons..."\n\n\n-Surangama Sutra (The Buddha)\n http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/Buddhism/Shurangama/Shurangama.htm\n\n”The Bodhisattva, whose nature is Compassion, is not to eat any meat… For fear of causing terror to living beings…let the Bodhisattva who is disciplining himself to attain Compassion, refrain from eating flesh.”\n\n\n-Lankavatara Sutra (The Buddha)\n\n"If a bhikkhu sees, hears or suspects that it has been killed for him, he may not eat it."\n\n-Mahavagga of Vinaya Pitaka (The Buddha)\n\n"Let him not destroy, or cause to be destroyed, any life at all, nor sanction the acts of those who do so. Let him refrain from even hurting any creature, both those that are strong and those that tremble in the world." \n\n-Sutta-Nipata (The Buddha)\n\n"I have enforced the law against killing certain animals and many others, but the greatest progress of righteousness among men comes from the exhortation in favor of non-injury to life and abstention from killing living beings." \n\n\n-King Asoka's Edicts \n\n\nAll true practitioners of the Bodhisattva path eventually relinquish meat-eating. In His previous lives, the Buddha as a Bodhisattva would rather cut His own flesh to feed an eagle than let it eat a smaller bird. All advanced practising Bodhisattvas are thus necessarily vegetarians, since they cannot bear the pain of sentient beings.\n\nWhile nothing we eat makes us impure, our choice of diet is an action with implications. If our choice of diet arises from greed, sustaining the greed obviously makes us impure
72902
Vegetarians won't eat any meat but vegans won't eat any product or byproduct of an animal. They are missing out on soooo much.
177004
Buddhists have been enjoying vegetarian dishes for centuries\n\n \n More of this Feature\n• Vegetarian FAQs\n \n From Other Guides\n• 5 Reasons for Being Vegetarian\n• Low Fat Vegetable/Vegetarian Recipes\n \nMention vegetarian cuisine and many people picture a group of aging hippies kneeling cross-legged around a communal dining table, helping themselves to carrot sticks dipped in yogurt or another plate of chickpea salad. While it's true that vegetarianism became trendy in the "psychedelic sixties," its origins date back much farther.  Pythagoras was a vegetarian (vegetarians were called Pythagoreans up until the 1800's) as was the poet Percy Shelley.  George Bernard Shaw, never one to shy from the spotlight, was a vocal proponent of a meat-free diet: \n\n"It is nearly fifty years since I was assured by a conclave of doctors that if I did not eat meat I should die of starvation." (Vegetariana: A Rich Harvest of Wit, Lore, and Recipes, by Nava Atlas)
1064624
Good point!\nAs for them being veggi beforehand...LMAO! (I wonder what that fossilized *meat* was, found in a dino's stomach? T-Rex, anyone?)\nIt's not just animals either, it goes right down to the microscopic level. I could point out the fact(scary word for xtians!)that there's more prey than predators too...but I won't. \nNature is cruel to be kind.\n\n:)
921725
Recently in The Times, an article was published about 3 lionesses taking on a small elephant as there was a shortage of food. Unfortunately they killed it. Just shows how strong these beasts are\n\nI wouldn't be suprised if lions could kill a bear but not a 1 v 1. Anyway lions hunt in groups and not on their own...
681743
The elephants’ ancestors looked more like pigs than elephants, and were about that size.  As elephants’ ancestors evolved they gradually be came larger, with larger heads of course.  The neck of an elephant is very short.  A long neck would not be able hold such a heavy head.  With a short neck an elephant cannot graze like a horse.  As the elephant evolved the upper lip of the elephant became the trunk we see today.
357584
no. i am a vegetarian.
174923
Not very many zoos have elephants.  They are very difficult and expensive to maintain and die young in zoos due to crippling arthritis and foot infections caused by lack of exercise.  San Francisco, Chicago, and several zoos released their elephants to sanctuaries so that they could have a more natural and healthy life.\n\nHere's a partial list of zoos that have elephants.\nhttp://savezooelephants.com/\nClick on "Campaigns" to see the list.  There are several other zoos in the country that have elephants as well.\n\nTucson, Phoenix, Tacoma, Atlanta, Bronx come to mind.
323481
I am a Mormon, and I am not a vegetarian.\n\nAs far as if it is ALLOWED... I think that some Mormons DO choose to be vegetarians.  There really isn't anything in Mormon doctrine that says anything AGAINST being a vegetarian.  \n\nHowever, I believe that part of the reason animals were put here on this Earth, is to be food for us.  If they die, and they weren't sick, then I think it's a good thing to eat the animals, so the meat isn't needlessly wasted.