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Scavenger
Scavenging, or '''necrophagy''', is a carnivorous feeding behaviour in which a predator consumes corpses or carrion that were killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by contributing to the decomposition of dead animal remains. Decomposers complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers.
Well known scavengers include vultures, burying beetles, blowfly|blowflies, yellowjackets, and raccoons. Many large carnivores that hunt regularly, such as hyenas and lions, will scavenge if given the chance.
Animals which consume feces, such as dung beetles, are referred to as Coprophagia|coprovores. Animals which primarily consume dead plants are referred to as detritivores. The eating of carrion from the same species is referred to as Cannibalism (zoology)|cannibalism.
Image:White-backed_vultures_eating_a_dead_wildebeest.JPG|white-backed vulture|Vultures eating the carcass of a wildebeest
Image:Raven scavenging on a dead shark.jpg|Jungle Crow feeding on a small dead shark
Image:Harvestman eating skink tail.jpg|Harvestman eating the tail of a five-lined skink
Image:Ants cleaning dead snake.jpg|Ants cleaning a dead snake
As a human behaviour
In humans, necrophagy is a taboo in most societies. In the Qur'an slanderers are stigmatized as those who eat the flesh of the dead body of the person they slander. The Aghori, a Hindu sect known to live in graveyards, according to a Persian source and nineteenth century British accounts, were necrophagous. There have been many instances in history, especially in war times, where necrophagy was a survival behavior.
In 2004, Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman proposed that Homo (genus)|early humans were scavengers that used stone tools to harvest meat off carcasses and to open bones. They proposed that humans specialized in long-distance running to compete with other scavengers in reaching carcasses2. It has been suggested that such an adaptation ensured a food supply that made large brains possible.
The eating of human meat, a practice known as anthropophagy (and known more commonly as cannibalism), is extremely taboo in almost every culture.
References
- Webster's Dictionary#The Collegiate Dictionary|Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
- Smith TM, Smith RL (2006) Elements of Ecology. Sixth edition. Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA.
- Chase, et al. The Scavenger Handbook. Bramblewood Press, Santa Barbara, CA.
Category:Eating behaviors
Category:Ecology
category:Scavengers|
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