Charles Darwin Was Not as Much of a Conservationist as Many Might Think
Charles Robert Darwin (1809 – 1882) is best known for his theory of evolution. When he set sail aboard the HMS Beagle in 1831 for what turned out to be a five-year journey, few knew that his observations would revolutionize science, and the world, for that matter. Yet, that is precisely what happened. Darwin’s Victorian contemporaries were shocked by his assertion that humans and animals shared a common ancestry. Today, his notion that all species are descended from common ancestors is widely accepted. His take that species evolved into their current forms because of changes in heritable characteristics is a fundamental concept of science. One of history’s most influential figures, he was honored with burial in Westminster Abbey when he died.
Darwin, a late addition to the Beagle as a supernumerary naturalist, studied plants and animals, and gathered data for his theory of evolution through natural selection. Less known, is that Darwin, an adventurous gourmand, ate every animal he discovered. As a student in Cambridge University, long before he became famous, Darwin was a member of the Glutton Club. The student group’s members habitually wolfed down “birds and beasts which were before unknown to human palate“. Among other things, they ate hawks, herons, and a brown owl so nauseating that the club dissolved after it tried it. However, as seen below, Darwin did not lose his taste for exotic flesh.
