There is perhaps nothing more ironic than Evolutionists, who ultimately believe creatures with all dietary requirements are descended from a single cell, frequently mocking the idea that all living things were initially vegetarian, as the Bible says (Genesis 1:30). Evolutionists frequently assert that if small changes can happen, so can big ones, and yet even though they believe in big changes, they don't want us to believe in small ones? You want us to believe that lions and their prey share a common ancestor, but you laugh at the idea that lions could originally survive without eating other animals? I fail to see why the idea of animals which are carnivorous in the present being herbivorous in the past is so laughable, yet the belief that modern carnivores are related to their prey is not.
But there's more to it than just claiming that maybe, 6,000 years ago, predators might not have been predatory. It turns out, there are several examples of predators in the modern day that refused to be predatory. Modern history is littered with examples of what Creationists colloquially refer to as "Echoes of Eden".
The most interesting example by far is the example of "Little Tyke". Born in 1946, this remarkable lioness never consumed so much as a drop of blood. And I mean that quite literally. Her owners were advised to add blood to her milk to give her a taste for it, but as soon as a single drop was added, she refused to drink it. Instead, she lived her whole life on a diet of cooked grain, raw eggs. and milk, and she would reportedly spend a lot of time eating grass, too. Despite this, by 4 years of age she weighed an amazing 352 lbs (with the average weight of a fully grown lioness being 280 lbs), and was allegedly described by one of America's most able zoo curators as the best of her species he had ever viewed.
Now, Little Tyke is a rare anomaly. As far as I know, there is only one other lion, named Lea, who thrived on a vegetarian diet, and she eventually did become carnivorous. But the fact that vegetarian lions have existed twice in recorded history indisputably proves that it can happen, even in our fallen world, many years after the fall. Who's to say they could never have been vegetarian 6,000 years ago, or that they never could be again?
As usual, the Biblical narrative has been scientifically proven to be a lot less laughable than certain unbelievers would like to make it seem. If predators have been observed to live vegetarian lifestyles in a sin cursed world, there's no reason to believe they could not have been vegetarians before sin entered the picture. On top of this, there is still hope for the glorious prediction of redemption to be fulfilled exactly as scripture says. Why should lambs not lay down with lions? Why shouldn't leopards dwell with goats? And why should children not lead these great beasts, or fearlessly play near venomous snakes? This seems impossible in our modern world, but a day will come when it will not be. The question is whether or not you will put your trust in the God who will make this happen?