None have ever adopted the diet, but vegetarianism is considered by the Kijk people of north Ciscaucasia to be divine, “the proper state of man in the orchard.”
The Turkic Hill Chicken (mountain runner bird) is regarded as a fruit in parts of Ciscaucasia and can be eaten without guilt or any fear of religious retribution, either from a vengeful deity or their earthbound acolytes. Converging mythologies have scrambled to explain the classification. The most likely explanation is that their flesh is said to have embodied a strong apple flavour, apples having been their preferred source of food.
The point is moot anyway as the chicken was certainly well on its way to extinction by 1902, when Charles Kyte entered the region with a list of zoological curiosities that he intended to return with to London. When he reached Öndövstei in the spring of that year, having been delayed three months by seasonal flooding, his guide handed him a drawing of the bird. The living specimen had expired a few days before and no replacement could be found.
The only remaining edible specimens were hewn from the Khuvaakh Selem Glacier in the 1970s. They were stored in the deep freeze at Öndövstei University until 2008 when flood waters swept away the east side of the campus. They have presumably rejoined the foot of glacier, however this area falls within the southern buffer zone and is likely to remain off limits to all but government troops for the foreseeable future.
The Turkic Hill Chicken (mountain runner bird) is regarded as a fruit in parts of Ciscaucasia and can be eaten without guilt or any fear of religious retribution, either from a vengeful deity or their earthbound acolytes. Converging mythologies have scrambled to explain the classification. The most likely explanation is that their flesh is said to have embodied a strong apple flavour, apples having been their preferred source of food.
The point is moot anyway as the chicken was certainly well on its way to extinction by 1902, when Charles Kyte entered the region with a list of zoological curiosities that he intended to return with to London. When he reached Öndövstei in the spring of that year, having been delayed three months by seasonal flooding, his guide handed him a drawing of the bird. The living specimen had expired a few days before and no replacement could be found.
The only remaining edible specimens were hewn from the Khuvaakh Selem Glacier in the 1970s. They were stored in the deep freeze at Öndövstei University until 2008 when flood waters swept away the east side of the campus. They have presumably rejoined the foot of glacier, however this area falls within the southern buffer zone and is likely to remain off limits to all but government troops for the foreseeable future.