They tasted hawk and a heron-like wading bird called a bittern, but the club dissolved after trying to eat a brown owl, “which was indescribable,” Darwin reported.

Repelled by the horror of early 19th century surgery, Darwin dropped out of Edinburgh in 1827 and enrolled in Christ College, Cambridge University, studying to be a clergyman in the Church of England. Charles earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Theology in 1831.

Darwin wrote that it was “indescribable.” That’s saying a lot, considering how many other animals he could compare it to. Darwin became a naturalist by way of beetle collecting, and it wasn’t unusual for him, even in his teen years, to try eating the beetles he picked up.

Charles Darwin is most famous for his work as a naturalist, developing a theory of evolution to explain biological change. A less well-known fact about the 19th-century scientific explorer is that he had an equally adventurous palate. He eagerly ate many of his specimens—including iguanas, armadillos, and rheas.

While on his voyage, Darwin dined on puma, which he described as “remarkably like veal in taste,” iguanas, armadillos, and his famous giant Galapagos tortoises. Not only did he eat the tortoises, but he also sampled a cup of the tortoises’ bladder contents, which he described as “limpid” and “slightly bitter.”

Although Charles Darwin was a vegetarian he became vegetarian later in life. In fact his early university years were spent as a member of the Gourmet Society where he and his university colleagues would eat all manner of animals including bats, hedgehog, owls and similar anumals to discuss their taste.

8 of History’s Most Famous Vegetarians

• Pythagoras. Pythagoras.
• St. Anthony of Egypt.
• Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo da Vinci.
• Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi.
• Franz Kafka. Franz Kafka.
• Mary Shelley. Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.
• John Harvey Kellogg. John Harvey Kellogg, undated photograph.
• Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy.

Sir William Shakespeare loved all animals It was uncommon then to be a vegetarian in the 1600, since he adhered to a vegetarian diet. In Shakespeare’s time he promoted more a vegetarian lifestyle which was considered more healthy than ordinary diet.

Socrates was a vegetarian who taught that virtue was based on knowledge. He was indicted for impiety, as well as the corruption of youth and was condemned to death. He refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock in 399 BC.

Socrates: If we pursue our habit of eating animals, and if our neighbor follows a similar path, will we not have need to go to war against our neighbor to secure greater pasturage, because ours will not be enough to sustain us, and our neighbor will have a similar need to wage war on us for the same reason?

According to his official biography, Jobs learned from an early age that he could induce euphoria by choosing not to eat for long periods of time. He was a vegetarian for most of his life, and even became vegan at certain points, but his meals were always small and simple whenever he ate.

For one, it’s out of the question that the source of his smarts was a meatless diet. Einstein was only a strict vegetarian for the last couple years of his life, decades after many of his most important scientific breakthroughs. There are countless records of Einstein eating meat, well into adulthood.

On average, vegetarians had a higher childhood IQ score than non-vegetarians. According to sex, the mean (SD) childhood IQ score of vegetarians compared with non-vegetarians was 106.1 (14.7) and 100.6 (15.2) for men and 104.0 (14.1) and 99.0 (14.7) for women, differences of 5.5 and 5.0 points (P<0.001).

Regardless of his personal diet, Pitt is vocal in his support of vegetarian, vegan, and meat-free food. Earlier this year, he complimented the vegan food served at the 77th Golden Globe Awards.