What do they eat?

The Bushmen will eat anything that is available, both animal and vegetable.

Their selection of food ranges from buck- large and small, zebras, porcupines, hares, lions, giraffes, fish, insects, tortoises, flying ants, snakes- venemous and non-venemous, hyenas, eggs and wild honey. They roast or boil the meat on a fire.

The men are responsible for providing the meat, although women might occasionally kill small mammals. Game is not plentiful and the hunters sometimes must travel great distances. Expert archers, the men hunt with bone tipped poisoned arrows. They can run for hours at a time, following a herd of eland or other antelope. See Tracking and Hunting
Every part of the animal is used; hides are tanned for blankets and bones are cracked for the marrow. The men provide household tools and maintain a supply of poison tipped arrows and spears for hunting.

The women provide the majority of the food, spending two to three days a week foraging varying distances from the camp, and are also responsible for child care, gathering wood for fires, carrying water, and cooking.

Typical foods they might return with are mongongo nuts, baobab fruits, water roots, bitter melon, or berries. They have over 100 edible plants that they eat. Children are left at home to be watched over by those remaining in camp, but nursing children are carried on these foraging trips, adding to the load the women must carry.

Water is hard to find, as there are no permanent water holes. Usually during the dry season these nomads collect their moisture by scraping and squeezing roots.
They dig holes in the sand to find water when they are out hunting or travelling. They will carry water in an ostrich egg-shell.