T. rex – Hunter or Scavenger (Results from our Survey)

Over the last few weeks, team members at Everything Dinosaur have been working at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (Birmingham, UK) providing presentations and activities in support of a touring exhibition featuring Tyrannosaurus rex.  The theme of the exhibition it to present evidence as to whether Tyrannosaurus rex was a hunter, a scavenger or a bit of both (opportunist).

Workshops and Presentations

Everything Dinosaur team members have carried out a series of workshops and presentations updating visitors on the latest research and scientific thinking, as well as de-bunking some of the misconceptions surrounding theropods and other dinosaurs.

Over the course of the Summer we have held our own straw poll asking the audience members to state whether they think T. rex was a hunter, a scavenger or an opportunist scavenger.  Perhaps large tyrannosaurs like T. rex were mainly active hunters but also not averse to taking up the odd free lunch should T. rex stumble across a carcase.

In an earlier Everything Dinosaur blog article we published our preliminary results:

To see these results: T. rex Hunter or Scavenger?

Tyrannosaurus rex

In the earlier research, more than 70% of respondents considered T. rex to be both a hunter and a scavenger.  Now that all the results have been compiled from our work at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, we can confirm that this figure was sustained throughout the research period and ultimately a fraction under 70% of our respondents thought that T. rex was a both a scavenger and a hunter.

The Everything Dinosaur Final Survey Figures (Summer 2010)

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

We would not consider this to a representative sample of all the visitors to the museum, after all many people had come to see the excellent ceramics on display and the art galleries, but it is interesting to note that the views remained consistent throughout the duration of the exhibition.

Everything Dinosaur stocks a vast array of T. rex models and figures.

To view the extensive range of prehistoric animals available: Dinosaur and Prehistoric Animal Figures.