Is there any proof of a animal species that hunted humans as a source of food.

by StrikeZone1000
retarredroof

I think you are more likely to get a good answer or discussion from asking this in /r/AskScience.

masiakasaurus

There are plenty of animals known to have killed humans and fed on them. Do you mean an animal that only ate humans?

Examples of occasional maneaters include:

  • Big cats (tigers, lions, leopards)
  • Cougars (not big cats despite their size)
  • Hyenas (though it's difficult to tell if they killed humans or only fed in corpses)
  • Canids (wolves, coyotes, wild dogs)
  • Brown bears
  • Crocodiles and relatives
  • Sharks

In addition, there is some fossil evidence of early hominid predation by birds of prey and (more dubiously) sabertooth cats. Feel free to ask for more detailed examples.