Short story where interplanetary explorers find a strange planet that's weirdly suited for human life

Question

I recall reading the story in a book that was part of a larger award anthology. The plot revolved around a small team of scientists (3-5) exploring planets searching for those potentially suitable for human life. I don't recall any details of the scientists themselves except that one is a vegan.

They discover a small planet that's well suited for human life and remarkably already has life in the form of 3 species. Some moss/grass-like plant, a bee-like pollinator, and a grazing herd animal. This surprises the team because they expected more diversity like a predator to hunt the defenseless herd organism. They also conclude that the animals are edible but the team avoids eating them out of an abundance of caution opting instead to feed the meat to their lab animals.

The team settles onto the planet and things are going well until the herd species starts a stampede trampling all of their equipment and supplies. This again unnerves the team because without natural predators it's unclear what provoked the stampede. Without food, the team decides to start consuming the animals except for the vegan character who still has a small amount of vegan food left.

Spoilers for the end:

It's ultimately revealed that the entire biome is comprised of a single-celled hive-like organism mimicking multicellular plant and animal life. The lab animals fed this life are already transforming into the aforementioned herd organism. The novel ends with the vegan scientist escaping to warn future explorers and the remaining team presumably succumbing and transforming into the hive.

Answer 1

This is surely Drop Dead, a short story by Clifford Simak, first published in Galaxy in July 1956.

It indeed deals with a team of scientists surveying a new world, and being surprised by its lack of diversity. There are endless seas of grass, but no other plants, one bee-like pollinator, and herds of animals they call "critters". The protagonist eats a vegan diet, made up from a formula in a diet kit, because of his stomach ulcers.

As recalled in the question, there is a stampede of the critters one day which destroys their food supplies, so the crew resort to eating critters. This results in them being absorbed by the planet's biosphere, except for the main character. It is revealed however, that he has always hated his special diet, and longed to eat food like the others. So he voluntarily succumbs to the process - the last line of the story is the character walking back into camp and asking "What's for supper?".

The story is available at the Luminist archive.