Charles Darwin's strange eating hobby

Charles Robert Darwin (1809 - 1882), English scientist, is one of the most influential figures in human history.

He is famous for discovering and proving that all species evolved over time from common ancestors through natural selection. In addition to his passion for research, this scientist has a strange hobby of eating .

Interests in student time

Picture 1 of Charles Darwin's strange eating hobby
Funny pictures depicting Darwin's interest in eating research specimens.

Through trips to strange lands around the world, Darwin has provided us with insights into the many animals, the diversity of life on the planet. However, the strange thing is that Darwin has a hobby of eating animals that he discovered and researched.

Interest in eating strange animals began when Darwin was a student at Cambridge University (UK). One day, he and some of his classmates came up with the idea to set up the Glutton Club . The purpose of this club is quite simple, just aiming to eat 'birds and animals, not previously known during human meals'.

Once a week, they gather and eat food made from unique creatures, such as hawk, heron, cauldron . They eat and discuss the taste and characteristics of the animals. this thing. This is considered a pastime to escape boredom after class in the lecture hall. One day, they slaughtered a brown owl, but everyone was too terrible to cook.

Darwin said that the taste is so bad that it is "indescribable" and not a healthy food. Shortly thereafter, people decided to disband the club, which, according to Darwin, was to 'focus on studying the effects of refuge, combined with the flesh of strange animals'. After the Glutton Club ceased to exist, the hobby of eating strange, unusual and rare animals remained in Darwin.

Journey of discovery

Picture 2 of Charles Darwin's strange eating hobby
Scientist Charles Darwin.

When he graduated, becoming a naturalist, Darwin was fond of eating beetles and some other captured insects. He was obsessed with eating the animals he studied at a higher level, when boarding a ship for a long journey aboard the HMS Beagle. This is Darwin's most famous trip, traveling around the world from 1831 to 1836, including a significant visit to the Galapagos Islands.

There, he discovered and carried out many important studies, forming ideas for theories of evolution. He carefully recorded his observations and hypotheses. He also regularly sends specimens to Cambridge and letters to family diaries. Darwin said that the trip on the HMS Beagle was the most important event in his life and decided his career.

In particular, this sea trip is also a great culinary experience for an adventurous, gourmet like Darwin. He could not resist being used to feed most of the strange animals he cataloged and cataloged. Further into the natural world, Darwin did not hesitate to experience exotic foods, some of which were alien to science.

Not only did he eat, he also took time to take notes, reflecting on their flavor. He once ate a cheetah and concluded it was better than he thought and described the taste 'like veal' , and the tatu (armadillo) was 'like a duck'. Once Darwin put a fairly large chocolate rodent, he did not know the name but guessed it was an agouti mouse, which seemed to be very precious. Darwin finished and commented, 'This is the best meat I've ever tasted.'

He particularly likes to eat the Galapagos giant tortoise meat, which he says is 'buttery flavored'. His team often has turtle meat at meals with various ways of cooking and tasting. He also drank liquids contained in their bladder, which he described as 'transparent and slightly bitter'. Many people believe that the reptiles, birds, insects we know by name, Darwin must have tasted them.

Understanding his hobby, the companions often delighted the scientist by bringing him many creatures they found, to see if he ate and what he thought later. This was meant to bring joy to the group, but at one point it also made Darwin sweat. In 1833, when they were in Port Desire, South America, the group decided to surprise Darwin with a special Christmas dinner with grilled ostrich meat. This is a large, flightless bird native to the region.

Darwin was very pleased and people started sipping this large bird, until the naturalist was startled in a panic when he realized that the food at dinner was a very rare little ostrich, called lesser rhea. , yet to be classified that Darwin is trying to scour the area to find. Luckily, he kept the 'head and neck, legs and large fur' for packaging and sent back to England as a sample.

The strange case of Charles Darwin and his never-ending hunt to eat every creature he encountered was an interesting story that many people who did not fully understand his private life may not know.

In fact, Charles Darwin is not the only famous naturalist to habitually eat his specimens . One of his contemporaries was a geologist, paleontologist, Englishman, Oxford University lecturer, William Buckland, famously eccentric, often lecturing students on horseback and digging through the site. a scholar's outfit, also likes to eat strange creatures flying, swimming, running, sliding, or crawling on Earth. He has eaten European porcupines, dolphins, leopards, cashew nuts, crocodiles, sea snails, kangaroos and mice, but his favorite is roasted rats.