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T he very idea of a pregnant woman hunting seems a bit absurd, weird, and even unthinkable. In our society women carrying a new life are seen as sacred, and also someone to care for, cherish, and protect. Now, why would we even consider this idea of them going to the wild and catching an animal during such a precarious period of their life?
Being able to provide for basic needs is at the core of survival. And that includes all stages of life for all species, including pregnancy and raising babies. The most logical solution is to procure food with the least amount of energy involved, which is usually determined by our biology and anatomy, in other words, something that is most natural to us.
One of the most common topics related to that and has been debated throughout history, is men vs women… who is more resilient, courageous, stronger, etc. There is also a very popular theme lately on whether it is feminine for a woman to be muscular, strong, and proactive, because these are considered as male qualities.
In the wild, animals don’t have time for such discussions, because they are focused on survival. When you look at males and females of tigers, bears, or wolves, they are both fierce, strong, and resilient, but also gentle, vulnerable and ‘soft’ when they want to or are safe to be.
When it comes to survival of species, there are no jokes or debates, as well as social conditioning and influence from the media to tell animals what they can and can not do. But there is a strong ingrained survival instinct.
Nature has made sure that Every Female of Every Species can provide food for herself to live, to carry out a pregnancy and to raise her young. Carnivore and omnivore females are even better hunters than their male counterparts, because the life of their young and ultimately the entire species depends on them. Females hunt throughout their entire pregnancy - there are no supermarkets or food deliveries for them.
Let’s say that again.There is no species on Earth where the female of that species is unable to procure the food she needs to live, carry a pregnancy and feed her young.
The most ‘dangerous animal’ is by far a mother who is protecting her babies. Mama Greasley is probably one of the scariest things we can encounter in nature. She is fierce, strong, and would do anything for her babies. Same goes for other Mamas out there. That's why we have the expression Mama Bear, or Tiger Mama when we want to describe how brave, ferocious, determent, and unstoppable someone is at protecting the ones they love.
Even though human mums are super protective of their babies and are a force to be reckoned with, as a species we are not biologically designed as lions, tigers, and bears.
In humans, pregnant women cannot hunt. Imagine a woman in her ninth month of pregnancy with a giant belly up to her teeth running after an antelope. It sounds pretty ridiculous. But, they can easily get plant food.
Ok, but what about males who are said to protect and provide for their female partners? By the words of scientist, anthropologist, and Doctor Milton Mills, ‘nature doesn’t make mistakes and knows that females can’t fully rely on males for survival’. If it did, species would go extinct.
Now, let’s see how various species differ when it comes to pregnancy and babies.
A woman's long pregnancy is typical of large herbivores (of a similar body weight). It lasts about 40 weeks or 9 months, which is 2.5 - 3 times longer than in carnivores.
This is also the case for all large bodied apes like chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans who are also herbivores and have gestation periods of between 34 - 40 weeks.
Omnivores and carnivores have a very short pregnancy, usually 9-15 weeks and give birth early. That is because massively gravid females cannot hunt effectively and could potentially endanger themselves and the lives of their babies.
Carnivores give birth to tiny little babies and typically have many of them. Babies’ body weight is barely 1% of their mothers. They are born deaf and blind with their eyes closed, finishing their development outside the womb. Their eyes are closed because the nervous system that links to them is not yet developed enough to be usable.
It takes several days ( 1 - 2 weeks ) for their eyes to open and turn from baby blue to color. If you ever had the privilege of your cat or a dog having babies, you were there to witness and follow the exciting and beautiful period of their development and growth, from little tiny specs of cuteness to adorable and mischievous pups or kittens who run around in super high speed, destroying your furniture, curtains, chewing on your books, and favorite shoes.
Typical omnivores like pigs and bears give birth to babies who are even smaller, and only around 0,25% of the body weight of their fierce and big mamas. They also have multiple babies like carnivores that are born underdeveloped.
Like herbivores, Humans usually have one baby that is born large, weighing about 6-8% of their mother's weight. Unlike with carnivores and omnivores, the baby is born developed - the eyes are open which indicates a brain development.
This is very significant and shows us what a certain species needs the most, not only in childhood, but also later in life.
Milk of carnivores has more protein and fat because the babies are born underdeveloped and grow quickly. It contains 2-10x more fat than the milk of herbivores and humans, and up to 10x more protein than human milk.
Our milk contains barely 1% protein, and as the baby grows, that percentage decreases.
Human milk has the lowest percentage of protein of all mammals because we grow and mature slowly. But that is why our breast milk has a high percentage of milk sugar (lactose) - around 7%, while in carnivores it’s almost 3 times less - around 2.5%.
This is because the brain of a human baby is much larger in relation to the body, requires more energy, and uses only glucose for metabolism. Despite popular opinion, protein is generally not that important to us.
It seems that all the fuss around protein in the media is perhaps just a well designed marketing trick that makes us buy products we don’t need, at least not in such amounts. You can read more about humans and protein here
Dr Garth Davis goes into depth with this topic in his book ‘Proteinaholic’.
Carnivores nurse their young for about 8 weeks, while humans breastfeed much longer (ideally), for a few years.
Carnivore and omnivore babies mature quickly in a period of 6-9 months, while in humans it takes much longer, 18-25 years. All this indicates how different we are from them.
Large herbivores live longer than carnivores, and one of the reasons is that the plants they eat contain high levels of antioxidants. The average lifespan of carnivores is about 15 years, while herbivores like donkeys can live 50 years, chimpanzees up to 60 years, and elephants up to incredible 70 years.
Our lifespan is also around 70 years, or longer if we know how to take care of ourselves. The example are the Okinawans who’s diet up until a few decades ago consisted of around 98% plants, and they lived on average to be almost 100 years old.
It’s interesting to mention that cultures that were forced to eat mostly meat because of their geographic location had shorter lifespans. An example is the Inuit, whose diet consisted mostly of wild fish that they caught themselves for centuries. Their life expectancy was about 43 years accompanied with a variety of health issues. Ironically, their lifespan increased with the arrival of processed foods during the mid 20’ century.
When looking at all the mentioned differences between species, it’s clear that we are nothing like carnivores, or even omnivores, and that the closer we get to our natural diet, the healthier we become. Even though most of us weren’t raised as vegans or plant based, we can make informed and educated changes that would benefit us, and raise the new generation in health while installing values of compassion.