My question is can people eat cougars? Are they edible like deer, rabbits and turkeys etc.

[Tony Zoars]

Historically people have eaten rats, cats, dogs, snakes, horses, mules, smaller song birds, lizards, and each other as cannibals. As for the flavor etc. that is a personal question. As for the reason, it all relates to circumstance. There are today horse butchers throughout Europe. I am always surprised at American's reticence to partake of horsemeat. That is one of our stronger taboos which is not related to religion.

[Josey]

yes. cook thoroughly to avoid getting parasites

[Montanagyrene]

Somewhere in the deepest recess of my brain, I seem to recall a history teacher telling me that the meat the old time mountain men preferred was cougar, even given a choice...Not too sure I ever believed it...

[charlie elk]

Good point Ishi I Bing-ed "bio magnification". I had forgotten about this concept and its inherent dangers. I have tried eating many of the carnivores and found the meat; to me anyway is not tasty. You have to do things to it in order to smother the background flavors. Not good eats - just maybe survival food.
One exception - that gator seadog mentioned, gator is good eats. Snake however, not good eats but then I hate chicken. ;-D)
later,
charlie

[PittsburghDeerHunter26]

Pretty much every animal is edible, just some are harder to swallow than others. I heard that cougar is pretty good and even heard from a friend that cougar burgers are very good! I've never eaten it myself.

[buckhunter]

Google biomagnification to best understand the question as to why we do not eat the meat of carnivores. It is a very interesting topic.

[land_cruiser_73]

I have always heard that cougar was delicious, only you usually couldn't eat the forelegs because of porcipine quills and scar tissue.

[Browning_300]

The are greasy like bear so the best way to eat them is in salami or pepper sticks.

[www.dropjhook.com]

of course!!! I only wish our ancestor would of saved us some saber tooth imagine how good those things would of tasted but no they eat'm all up!

[Bo]

I have never eaten cougar, but would if I ever got the chance. I have heard from more than one source that they are tasty. I have never talked to anyone who tried it that didn't like it. So, if you get one, go for it.

[seadog]

You can eat just about any meat that isn't rotten or contaminated (and some that is if you got the stomach for it). Do I eat carnivores? Heck yeah, I do. We fried gator tenderloin last night and Sunday dinner was a gator & shrimp gumbo that was good enough to serve in a fancy restaurant. Think about it--most of the fish we eat are carnivores (or piscavores???)--wild hogs, ducks and chickens are omnivores...the list goes on. We tend to eat the plant eaters but there is plenty of good table fare that eats meat.

[alabamaoutlaw]

I was selling coons off the back of my truck and had a bobcat skinned out in the back off the truck going to throw it on the bait pile for coyotes when this old woman asked me how much i wanted for it,I ask her if she knew what i was and she did,So i did what i thought was right and give her the bobcat.Later i asked her about if it was good and she wanted all i could get.
As far as animals that eat other animals not being of worthy table fair,i would have to disagree,Bear is some of the best meat and the fat can be used in any sausage with great results.One of my favorites is the old gator that roams the swamp eating everything that doesn't eat it first,so much for the animals eating other animals not being resonable tablefare.I like mine in a sauce picante on a bed of white rice.

[the captain]

There are people who will eat cougars. The native american tribes on the reservation close to where I used to live ate them, though.
My buddy shot a cougar and donated the meat. None of it was wasted, and he still had his trophy.

[fisherman4194]

Thanks. I never thought of it that way.

[buckhunter]

In general, animals that eat meat are not very tasty themselves.