It is, of course, a little known fact that the name of the potiate is derived from the Italian verb "to prune". Although the beasts are principally thought of as carnivores, the long fangs were originally used for herbivorous purposes, and they were kept in smallish herds in order to keep the grass down in the Venezuelan meadows - which in turn provided them with that succulent grass fed flavour when the Venezuelan farmers turned to breeding them for meat.