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OCR for page 193
art IV
Rodents
Rodents are the world's most widespread, adaptable, and prolific
group of mammals. They reproduce well, grow fast, learn quickly, and
adapt to a wide variety of local conditions. Many convert vegetation
into meat efficiently, digesting some fiber, even though their stomach,
like man's, is a simple one.
It seems probable, therefore, that some species would make suitable
microlivestock a notion supported by the previous domestication of
the guinea pig, laboratory rat and mouse, gerbil, and hamster. Indeed,
"ranching" rodents might be an effective way to increase food supplies
in remote areas. It could also be a mechanism to ensure the survival
of rare rodents whose natural habitats are being rapidly destroyed.
RODENTS AS FOOD
Rodents are already common foods in many countries and are valued
items of commerce. It has been estimated that 42 of 383 cultures eat
rodents. But the fact that they are a major meat source is almost
unrecognized. This is due in part to cultural misunderstanding. Rodents
suitable for human food or other products do not live in filth, like
common rats. They are clean and vegetarian. Like rabbits, they eat
grass and grains.
In some regions of the world, cooked rodent meat is regarded as
the epitome of dining. In many countries, local rodent species are the
' H. Leon Abrams. 1983. "Cross Cultural Survey of Preferences for Animal Protein
and Animal Fat." Paper presented at Wenner-Gren Foundation Symposium No. 94, 23-
30 October, Cedar Key, Florida.
193
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194
MICROLIVESTOCK
most eagerly sought meats. City markets in different parts of Latin
America carry guinea pig, pace, capybara, and vizcacha. Markets in
Asia may carry rice rats, cloud rats, and bandicoot rats. Those of rural
Africa are filled with "bushmeats" usually including grasscutters,
giant rats, and several other rodent species. These are often preferred
to the meat of domestic stock and fetch higher prices than beef. And
the amounts of rodent bushmeat available are not minor. In one year,
for example, hunters in Botswana have brought to market 3.3 million
kg of meat of the rodent called springhare (see page 278~.
Fondness for rodent meat is not restricted to the tropics. In the
United States, squirrel was once a much sought treat. Fat, nut-fed
gray squirrels went into Brunswick stew, which has been called the
most famous dish to emerge from the campfires and cabins of Colonial
America. Thomas Jefferson liked it. Today, squirrel is the country's
number two game animal (after deer), and many are still eaten.
Ancient Romans kept fat dormice in captivity, serving them as a
delicacy. "The fat dormice are fattened up in barrel-like pots like those
in country houses," wrote Varro (11~27 BC). "One feeds these
animals large amounts of acorns, chestnuts, or other nuts."2 This
small rodent remains a prized food in Europe and still appears on
tables in certain areas. The meat is regarded as a delicacy because it
tastes of almonds and other nuts. Often it is roasted, broiled, and
cooked with its cracklings.
Rodents have seldom been included in livestock programs or eco-
nomic development plans. Yet human appetite has actually caused the
extinction of a number of species. Caribbean Indians ate several
endemic rodents (one of which was as big as a bear), and may have
caused several species to become extinct just before the time of
Columbus. Others may soon follow the same dismal route, including
the beautiful cloud rat of the Philippines, the hare-like mare of
Argentina, the vizcacha of southern South America, and the gentle
hutias of the Caribbean.
The guinea pig is described in a later chapter, but as it is the epitome
of a rodent microlivestock species, some historical background is given
here. It was domesticated for food use at least 7,000 years ago,
probably in what is now the central highlands of Peru and Bolivia.
With only llama and deer available, the prehistoric Andean peoples
had few readily available sources of meat. They adopted wild cavies,
and found that these rangeland rodents (which are more closely related
to porcupines than to rats or mice) were gentle, manageable, and easy
2 At some meals, scales were set up so that dormice could be weighed, and notaries
certified the weights of the dormice eaten. To have raised the fattest dormice added to
the prestige of the host.
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RODENTS
195
to rear. By the time the Spaniards arrived in the l500s, the "cuy"
(pronounced "coo-ee," like the faint cry it makes) was a major food
from Argentina to the Caribbean.
This impressed the conquistadores, who introduced cuys into Eu-
rope, where they also became a delicacy.3 Within a century, these
easily transported animals began to appear on tables in many parts of
the Spanish empire. Guinea pigs are now reared in campesino huts in
the mountains of central Mexico, in the Philippines, and in several
African nations, along with other areas of the world.
Elsewhere, guinea pigs came to be used only as house pets and
laboratory animals. Although during World War II Mussolini's gov-
ernment urged Italians to keep them to supplement their meager meat
rations, their use as food was largely ignored in most parts of the
world.
DOMESTICATION
The idea of domesticating rodents may seem radical, but domesti-
cation projects are already under way with capybara in Venezuela (see
page 206), pace in Panama (see next page and page 262), giant rat in
Nigeria (see page 224), and the grasscutter in Ghana (see page 2321.
Rodent husbandry is not complicated and the animals' environmental
requirements seem relatively simple and easy to satisfy. Moreover,
rodents are not usually fastidious feeders, and being essentially ve-
getarian will readily accept a wide variety of commonly available
foodstuffs.
LIMITATIONS
As with most animals with which man is in close contact, rodents
can transmit human diseases.4 With care, however, managed rodents
need not be any more dangerous to care for or to eat than pigs or
horses both of which are worldwide food resources.
3 Some of the ships from South America stopped in West Africa for water and supplies,
which is a possible reason why the animal came to be called "guinea pig" in English.
Another explanation is that they cost an English gold "guinea," and yet a third is that
the name "guinea" merely refers to something foreign.
4 In parts of tropical Africa, for instance, lassa fever has become a serious problem in
recent decades. It is transmitted to people when they handle or prepare for cooking
mouselike rodents that are infected with the lassa virus. This virus is not known to be
carried by any of the species in this report.
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MICROLIVESTOCK
DOMESTICATING RODENTS
To domesticate the pace (see page 262) would seem to be
impossible. These large rodents of Central and South America
are nocturnal and fiercely temtorial; they have low fecundity
and take 10 months to reach weaning, and they have tender
skin that is easily damaged Most researchers have written
them off as candidates for domestication. But at least two
have undertaken to beat the odds. We present the findings of
one of them here to show that, using modem techniques,
even species that normally fight each other to the death on
sight are potential pa`,,` animals.
Through years of studying paces in Panama, Smithsonian
biologist Nicholas Smythe has found that with care and planning
the aggressive behavior can be so radically altered that the
animals become calm. Indeed, some become almost loving.
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Nicholas Smythe and some of the newest of the world's domesticated creatures.
(Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute)
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RODENTS
197
Newborns, Smythe found, undergo "imprinting" and when
he places them with docile adults or with humans, the fierce
territoriality never develops. He nurses newborns on "surr-
ogate" mothers that have been imprinted on people. The
youngsters then welcome human company and, if turned out
of the cage, return there voluntarily. "It's difficult to imagine
a more manageable animal," Smythe said. "Technically speak-
ing they are behaviorally indistinguishable from traditional
domestic animals."
As of this writing Smythe has three generations totalling
about 50 individuals, and has several "families" of gentle paces
living together in harmony. Ile has absented that they lose
their nocturnal habit and, although they live mainly on fruits
in the wild, they readily eat leafy vegetables and other foods
in captivity. this captive specimens have recently begun to
breed. The offspring remain docile, but they have so far
averaged only a little more than two young per female per
year.
"If we can just double the reproduction rate, then raising
paces can compete economically with raising cattle," Smythe
explained. "The potential for a bigger brood is all in the
animal's anatomy, and if successful, paces in the wet tropics
could produce as much protein as cattle."*
Pacas need the shade and protection of the forest. Thus,
pace raising might provide an alternative to cutting down
rainforests for cattle raising. Instead of toppling trees and
planting pastures, people could farm paces in the forest, and
perhaps make as much or more money at the same time. In
tropical America, the ready acceptance of pace meat is a near
guarantee that all they produce will be snapped up at premium
prices. In the past, many territorial and aggressive species
have been dismissed as being impossible to domesticate or
manage. But Smythe has demonstrated that with imprinting
and other methods of behavior modification, these need be
dismissed no longer.
Indeed, the pace may already be becoming a new domesti-
cated species. In the first stage of his experiments, Smythe
had to train his captive-born paces to be social and nonag-
gressive. Subsequent generations, however, need no training
adopt the new behavior patterns of the parents, and do not
revert to aggressive asocial behavior. By the third generation,
they have become as accepting of, and indifferent to, people
as cattle or sheep.
*Smythe points out that they can possibly do so now. On former Amazon forestland,
a cow produces approximately 180 kg of meat in 4.5 years. A group of 5 female
and 1 male paces will, in the same time, produce 45 young each yielding 4.2 kg
of meat (if slaughtered at age 5 months), for a total of 189 kg.
OCR for page 198
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
fat dormice
