Are Klingons obligate carnivores?

[Timo]

Of course, there are also ascetic warrior cultures or subcultures, taking pride in only eating monotonous food. Klingons might aspire to out-Spartan the Spartans of legend, eating not the stones of the olives and the tendons of the meat, but only the clay cups around either!

FWIW, what they do eat looks like seafood. Maybe it's all the tentacles...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[TheGoodNews]

Most zoologists might conclude that omnivorousness gives a species an edge. Especially an advanced and very populous species. Why would Klingons be the exception?

 

[Timo]

You don't need to be advantaged in order to be the dominant sapient - especially in Trek, where the biped form and sapience are something forced upon you by factors unrelated to natural evolution (TNG "The Chase").

That humans are both omnivores and dominant might be mere coincidence; a diet of meat would give us enough protein and energy to run our big brains, and the brains would make us dominant no matter what. OTOH, most omnivores aren't dominant, but rather survive in a position of inferiority thanks to the flexible diet.

Of omnivores, rats are populous but not dominant, bears are dominant but not populous, humans are both populous and dominant. Yet similar trios exist for herbivores and carnivores. Being dominant isn't an end result or a prize, it's a survival doctrine among others...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Vandervecken]

That also jives with the Klingon mythology that the Klingons killed their Gods.

When their gods brought them into existence, the beating of the first Klingon's hearts were so powerful that it killed the gods. It's not like the Klingons killed their gods through a deliberate effort.

In The Trouble with Tribbles both the Federation and the Empire were competing to prove which could develop Sherman's Planet most efficiently.

The person in charge of the Federation's development project on Sherman's Planet was a agricultural bureaucrat. If the Federation's efforts were in the agricultural area, debatably the Empire's were as well.

Yes, but I don't take Sherman's Planet as proof of omnivory because they could simply have intended any grain grown (assuming that was the use they intended to make of Sherman's Planet) for conquered near-slave races. Birthright, though, is pretty much proof that they eat veggies.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Omnivorousness does give you greater odds of long term survival of species due to it makes you less dependent on specific conditions. Say there's a natural disaster that kills a lot of your prey, or a new more effective predator moves in. Now you're starving. But if you're an omnivore, no big deal, I'll just eat this other stuff instead.

One might even argue that mammals outsurvived giant reptiles because their survival requirements were more flexible.

 

[Silvercrest]

Of omnivores, rats are populous but not dominant, bears are dominant but not populous, humans are both populous and dominant.

Second only to tribbles!

 

[Kevman7987]

That humans are both omnivores and dominant might be mere coincidence; a diet of meat would give us enough protein and energy to run our big brains, and the brains would make us dominant no matter what. OTOH, most omnivores aren't dominant, but rather survive in a position of inferiority thanks to the flexible diet.

Of omnivores, rats are populous but not dominant, bears are dominant but not populous, humans are both populous and dominant. Yet similar trios exist for herbivores and carnivores. Being dominant isn't an end result or a prize, it's a survival doctrine among others...

The big difference between human and non-human omnivores is that humans cook their food. Cooking our meats and vegetables makes them easier to digest/takes less energy. Less energy/time digesting means we spend less time eating and more time growing our brains. Bigger brains means we can create tools, and then make those tools better. Humans use these ever advancing tools to dominate.

 

[Grendelsbayne]

Do any of those quotes mention what kind of farming is done in the Empire? Because it could just as easily be for natural textiles or klingon tobacco, etc...

 

[TheGoodNews]

Second only to tribbles!

Tribbles are both populous and dominant. Ask the Klingons.

 

[T'Girl]

So they've got to get dietary fiber for their bowels from somewhere, right?

They buy one of those containers of wheat grass down at the market.

Second only to tribbles!

Tribbles are both populous and dominant.

And are yummy when slow roasted.

 

[Silvercrest]

Yeah, I always figured Klingons can eat and do eat just about anything, but their biology requires a high proportion of meat in their diet. Kind of like cats.

So, Klingons ... eat cats?

 

[Kevman7987]

Yeah, I always figured Klingons can eat and do eat just about anything, but their biology requires a high proportion of meat in their diet. Kind of like cats.

So, Klingons ... eat cats?

ALF was a Klingon?

ALF

"Here comes Mr. Meatloaf."

 

[TheGoodNews]

Darn.

 

[TheGoodNews]

So they've got to get dietary fiber for their bowels from somewhere, right?

They buy one of those containers of wheat grass down at the market.

Second only to tribbles!

Tribbles are both populous and dominant.

And are yummy when slow roasted.

Oh, "the horror, the horror."