Please: one mammal, per person, per day (story optional, but encouraged).

I'll start: Homo sapiens. Just kidding! Eastern Chipmunk. It's all protein, people!

I am not as confident on my list's staying power as Warren is, but I will edit it to one per day. First off, I am discounting any domestic food mammal, of which I have eaten cow, pig, sheep and rabbit. But I am not discounting farmed "wild game".

To start with I will go with Fox Squirrel. No interesting story here, I am just a hunter and we have a lot of squirrels. They are a little tough but delicious.

Lastly, I would be more than willing to eat beaver, muskrat, dog, cat, horse and, well we were just talking about eating human today at work. The only truly acceptable way (outside of survival) is to eat an amputated body part, with the blessing of the person it was amputated from.

I've eaten Fruit Bat sp. in Sulawesi. I wouldn't repeat it for ecological reasons, but it was most similar to moose in that it had a very distinct, sweet taste.


Curtis

Ditto to the above...horse I've eaten before.

I couldn't do that...amputated? Amputated because it had gangrene, leprosy, a bad rash. To strange for my psyche to deal with.


Smoked Black bear. Delicious.

-Dell

Oryx. Here in NM we have a population of them and I have had friends that got one and shared it. Very good eating, good flavor.

Josh

Josh, Oryx/Gemsbok????? That's one of the top rated meats in Africa. In the US, it's only based on whether or not you can draw a White Sands tag. Either way, top notch game meat, lucky you. I'm envious!!!!


Curtis

The most exotic ones I can remember were Muntiacus reevesi (in Taiwan) and Canis familiaris (in Guangzhou).

that's not entirely true, they have draw hunts for animals off the missile range. On the range is a once in a lifetime tag, off the range is not, but much more difficult.

Josh

There's an off the range draw? I've never heard of that. Is it in State only?

Porcupine. Though a strong smelling animal, the flesh was very enjoyable. I especially liked the liver. Hardest part was skinning it. It was roasted over a fire. Reminded me a of gamier version of paca, which I had in Peru...

It's after midnight here in Mountain Time, so I can post another mammal!

Striped Skunk via car hunting. Stinky, but delicious.

I guess if you could shoot or trap it without it spraying, you could eliminate the smell, but 3000 lb of steel ain't exactly a precision instrument.

As was stated by a few people here and in the other thread: Eastern Chipmunk.

MY dad had me trapping them out of the yard as a kid and I felt bad wasting them, so I started dressing them out and freezing them. When my dad's cousin, a taxidermist who has eaten a large assortment of weird things, came to visit he said to fry 'em up. At that point I only had 6, so we each ate 2. My mom thought (still thinks) we were nuts.

The first animal I shot and ate was a Red Squirrel. I was probably 14 or 15. It took me an hour to clean and I made it into stew, which my brothers were very upset that they had to eat.


Curtis

Whale - not certain about the species but I believe it was pilot.

where to begin

opossum. not the taste sensation i was hoping for, but not horrible either.

Deer Mouse. In the film Never Cry Wolf, the Farley Mowat character survives by eating mice in his shack. I had to try it!

http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us/publica ... evised.pdf

Snowshoe Hare. I was hunting grouse/ducks up in Quebec this year and a Snowshoe popped out on the trail.

Andy

Did you go to Quebec just to go hunting? Is it better than Ohio?

What!??? ha, ha, .......I know the movie, and liked it, but why would you do that, my dog likes them in the raw with the hair still on, but what possessed you to think that that was a good idea?

This thread keeps blowing me away. Armadillo, opossum, porcupine..... whats next, bat wing wrapped around rocky mountain oysters.(aka sheep balls) We'll call them, thin skinned ungulates Dolmades.
I had no idea we had so many adventures challengers of the palate.


Axis Deer. Very, very good.
http://www.allaboutexotics.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/axisgroup3.jpg

-Dell

I have had Axis as well. It may well have been the best burger I've ever had.


Curtis

I did go up there specifically for the hunting. I got a Chesapeake Bay Retriever this past year, and a friend got a lab and both were trained for hunting. They were young but we wanted to mix some upland and waterfowl and, well Canada is just awesome for that. We saw both Spruce and Ruffed Grouse and shot around 30 between 4 of us. I might see 1 grouse per year or two in Ohio. Ducks come in late in the season here, but Lake Erie can be good.

Besides, sometimes it is just fun to go somewhere else.

Andy

Red Fox: Helped out on a trapline and decided to try the meat. Wore latex gloves for skinning, nicked myself through the gloves, freaked out about rabies, but I'm still here.

I have not eaten nearly enough Whitetail Deer, although I might make some tacos out of it tonight. I need to learn to be a better deer hunter...

Abert's squirrel. I tried this in boy scouts when one of our leaders shot one. We all got a taste, it was pretty good!

Josh

I've eaten kangaroo (not sure of species) both in the UK and in Australia. It's widely available in both countries so I guess not as adventurous as eating porcupine, squirrel etc. I would consider eating any mammal other than human...

Springbok. Eaten as a cold meat at Marrick and as Biltong.





Curtis

The only wild game I've ever had is venison. I haven't eaten very many interesting mammals, sadly. I do know a guy who claims to have eaten red fox sausage

I've had a LOT of wild game meats as well as a lot of other random meats...

Guess I'll start with wild hogs. I've hunted hogs since I was a little kid. Big boars aren't good for much more than bacon and sausage, but the small (under 75 pound) pigs make great roasts and my buddy's mom (who grew up in Mexico) makes us some of the best Carnitas possible...

Besides the food aspect, it also always feels good to slaughter an invasive, destructive species. Hahaha

Muskrat ... don't have a great story, just shot it and ate it. Always enjoy seeing them living in ditches along major highways.
Not sure about their vision, but they often swim right at you and only seem to notice you at the last minute. Cute little magoos.

I noticed that too. I had one swim right to shore directly toward me, come out of the water walk within one foot of me and then it turned around and bolted! Never eaten one though.








Josh

@mikemike: I'm jealous. Met lots of guys in Australia who grew up hunting pigs. A big dog covered in body armour would hamstring the pig, and then the boy would cut the pig's throat with a big knife. Sounded dangerous and exciting!

Pronghorn. In the form of sausage.



Curtis

Homemade kangaroo jerky, teriyaki flavor. Beats any jerky I've ever had, even Taiwanese beef jerky.

Beaver. Every time someone says beaver is delicious, I think "it really is!"

My folks have a pond in Ontario and the young male beavers used to come down the river looking for a new home. They would take down several trees overnight. So the best thing (for us) was to shoot them and eat them. Once I chased one around for so long that he left the pond and started running back up the riverbed.

They are pretty tough animals. Once I missed one at close range, only to find the body months later (it dove, grabbed onto something, and died underwater). I have also hit them multiple times in the head with a slingshot, but it had no effect other than pissing them off.

Once my dog came running up, tail wagging, muzzle covered with (someone else's) blood, and pretty pleased with himself. You could see the bone in his leg where something took a piece of out him. I think he went out at night and killed a foraging beaver by cutting off his return path to the water.

I had heard about "beaver tails" (both the fried pastry and the real thing), so I brought one to a college bbq. It was pure fat and tasted like fish. Not very appetizing.

Okay Warren I haven't eaten beaver, but since you've told a few unpretentious stories, I've got one or two.
My grandpa had a beaver farm (insert required joke here), seriously. He sold their pelts to hat makers, and to other strange endeavors. He had some fenced in ponds they would swim in, but he had built concrete dens for them, which they used, we could pull boards off the top of the concrete den to look at and or feed the beavers.

I loved the beaver farm, and would help him with chores as often as he would let me, as I was only three or four and not much help. One day we took off a board to one of the dens and there were three baby pups, which he took out of the den and let me play with while he finished his beaver chores. While I played w/ the "neonate" beavers one of them bit me (insert required joke here) on my four finger. I screamed bloody murder because it wouldn't let go, he came a running and liberated my finger from the rodent. I carry the scar to this day.

All true I swear.

-Dell

Yup, me too. Love speed goat meat. Cubed in chile is dam good.

I've got a good friend who loves hunting them, and knows how much I like Antelope. He calls me from the field during hunting season after he knocks one down, and says Despain you've got back-straps to grill. He's left that message on my answering machine, which my wife has said to me, "Your friends are barbarians."

-Dell

Interesting, Dell! Never heard of farming beavers. What did he feed them?

I'll too add in on the Pronghorn. My dad has hunted them a few times (wants me to out with him in the next couple of years), and brought the meat home for us to eat. I was pretty young though and don't remember much of it, other than I liked it.

Greater Kudu as steak and biltong.

Curtis

I was serving a mission for my church in Idaho. We had told our land lady that we wanted to help her and her husband with the potato harvest. She called us one morning and told us that we could come help that afternoon. She also casually mentioned that the neighbor kid had spotted a bull moose in our backyard (which was actually a potato field). We ran out back and saw it running around, but it was more that 1/4 mile away and we just had point and shoot film cameras (pre-digital age). We then noticed a man driving his four-wheeler down the dirt road in the canter of the fields and the moose started running north. So, we hopped in our car and drove to the next cross street. We turned down that street and my companion (who was driving) told me to tell him when I saw it. I looked and looked and it didn't take too long before I said, "There it is! It's laying on the ground! There's two guys standing over it! One has a gun! Yes he had a permit for that area. We pulled over and started talking with the guy and he didn't have a camera, but one of the guys noticed that we did. So, he told us that if we took pictures for him, he would probably let us get pictures sitting on it! Deal! We took pictures of him and then us. Here is a picture of me with it:


He then proceeded to gut it. My companion was from Huntington Beach, California and had never seen the insides of an animal, I had helped out some friends who owned cattle ranches, so I was sort of familiar with what was going on. It was quite the sight, to see him react to the guts and everything!

We went over after I developed the pictures and gave them to him. We talked a little bit and he gave us a couple steaks! Well, it was actually one huge steak, but it made two really good sized steaks. Wow! Moose steak is awesome!

Josh

Can't remember any exciting ones at the moment, so I'll just go with Red Squirrel.
They're bitter; probably my least-favourite squirrel to eat.

Gray Squirrel, both black and normal phase.



Curtis

I want to go on record that I have eaten Moose, and it's very good, but I've never eaten one shot in a god-dam potato field! What the H-E double tooth pick was that Moose doing?


Yeah, beaver farming is kind of a strange thing. He also raised mink too, but I didn't care for the mink to much, they smelled so bad, and seemed really mean too.
I remember feeding beavers apples, lettuce, and I think onion.

-Dell

The hunter set his gun on the fence post and then loaded into his truck with his front end loader. But what are the chances? Draw your once-in-a-lifetime moose and then shoot it less than half a mile from your house! The kicker is it was my lifer moose. So, I ate my lifer moose! Saw many after that though.



Josh

I'll go with one of the biggest squirrels in the world: the groundhog.
At 13 I was not a hunter. Groundhogs were chewing up my dad's vegetable patch, so I begged him to buy me a livetrap and I caught the critter.
I wasn't allowed to use the gun, so I slipped a snare noose through the bars and hung it. Terrible way to die.
I didn't want to waste the meat, so I copied a gourmet lamb recipe (wrapped in bacon) but substituted groundhog.

It was delicious, but so is a rubber boot if you wrap it in bacon and baste it.
Anyway, I got into hunting after that and ended up eating A LOT of groundhogs.
They are pretty fun animals to hunt as they can be quite wary when they know you are out to get them.
They sometimes overeat and fall asleep in the sun, and I managed to grab one by the scruff of the neck while it was sleeping.

They might just be curious. I once had one come up and peer at me through an ice fishing hole I had drilled only 5 minutes earlier.

Wild burro...pre-act days...my cowboy friends would shoot them and hang them to age in vertical (relatively cool mine shafts), both of which are common in the desert. We ate the back straps (the "new yorks") , and they were tender and looked good, but I remember they had the aroma similar (not surprisingly) to canned dog food...and it remained on my fingers for hours. It tasted fine, but I think I would have to eat it more often and acquire a taste for it, I don't wake up craving burro...It would probably lend itself well to spicy recipes, i.e older wild pigs etc. Fear not for wild burros, they are ridiculously over- abundant and increasing, the management program for them failing miserably in my opinion. I saw dozens of them at one of the BLM holding facilities north of Reno, Nevada, and almost all the jennys were going to foal, same as the hundreds of mares also present, living off the tax payers and feeding on prime hay/alfalfa...what a travesty of legislation and inability of government agency to carry out the mandate... it is a no-win for BLM.

With a one a day limit, this thread may go on and on and on...

If times get tough, I want to hook up with Warren, he is obviously resourceful and adventurous. If I were a guest in his home, it might be best to not ask what is served, just eat it and enjoy it for what it is...protein source....

Warren, fascinating on eating wood chucks, I often wondered if they would be good to eat. I am from the far west, we don't have them here. If found one hit on the highway in Pennsylvania, and I euthanized it to end its misery. It looked very fat, and I thought it might be good to eat. Does it taste similar to rabbit or anything you can think of?

I agree with others, the pronghorn I have eaten are first class, despite rumors I heard to the contrary.

Interesting thread, I am pleasantly surprised we have not yet been attacked by the animal rights humaniacs...Vic

About muskrats...I was duck hunting in a Nevada marshland near Fallon. We left our decoys out, a multiple day hunt, and they were anchored with a thick vinyl(?) plastic type tangle free chord. Next day we found about 1/3 of the dozens of decoys cut loose and adrift...and then I inspected my dog blind, which was supported with an air filled inner tube. The inner tube was shredded and rendered useless...the culprits we think are muskrats, they are curious and destructive varmints, apparently attracted to rubber and plastic within their marsh environments. In this marsh of dense tules/cattails, they make 25' d. open ponds, with lodges in the middle, and I have had some epic mallard hunts because of the habitats they create. I like muskrats in the marsh, but I have learned not leave plastic or rubber items near them overnight. Muskrats have become very abundant due largely to falling demand for their formerly sought after pelts, few guys trap them here anymore. Vic