The expression Animal Scavenger has usually been used colloquially as a negative qualifying adjective to refer to a person whose behavior is, at the very least, reprehensible, because we observe that they take advantage of a situation in a harmful way, but what is probably not known is that Scavenger Animals are necessary for nature, so we invite you to read this article and find out how beneficial they are.
The Scavenging Animals
A picture in which we see some vultures heading together towards the remains of a dead animal to eat it may seem familiar to us. Well, it is not fair that we think that these vultures are bad or harmful animals because they act that way, nor are they the only animals whose method of feeding is to be scavengers.
Scavengers or necrophagous animals are animals that take their food from the dead bodies of animals they hunt or that are abandoned by other predators. And due to the fact that they do not hunt, but rather take advantage of the remains left by other carnivorous animals, people tend to think that they are opportunistic animals.
But that is their custom, and due to the danger that approaching the corpse of an animal can entail, while the one who hunted it is feeding on it, scavengers display unparalleled patience, waiting for hours until the moment they the hunter has taken advantage of his prey and feels satisfied, leaving it abandoned, so that he can approach and eat from it.
It is usual for scavengers to move in small groups, but they do not guarantee fidelity to each other, so it is common to see them fighting to get the best pieces of the carcass of the animal they are feeding on. But it is important to know that not all animals are exclusively scavengers. Some of them only use this practice of resorting to carrion in cases where there are few prey that can be hunted.
What is the importance of Scavenging Animals?
The role played by scavengers is of vital importance, because when they feed on corpses, they proceed to eliminate organic remains from ecosystems, removing the risks of certain types of pollution, and contributing to the reuse of nutrients, as well as the return of energy to the natural system.
On the other hand, they play an essential role in food chains, because they constitute the link that accelerates the metamorphosis of dead organic matter, represented by the corpses of animals found in nature, and organisms can act after them. that break down matter.
Another of their functions is to keep the habitat clean, because, with their particular feeding method, they proceed to eliminate dead animals that can become a threat to the health of other living beings, such as the spread of some diseases. that may affect live animals when exposed to carcasses.
Likewise, at times when, due to various conditions, prey animals and food sources are scarce, scavengers demonstrate great food versatility, because their diet is flexible, allowing them to adapt to adverse circumstances and, in this way, In this way, they obtain their sustenance more easily than other animals that have a more specific diet, which also allows them to evolve in any type of environment.
Invertebrate Animals Scavengers
As we have stated before, not all animals are exclusively scavengers, such as the common scavenger birds, as is the case with vultures, but there are others, whose diets can be varied, but which can become ghouls at those times when they He presents them with the opportunity, as happens to lions or hyenas.
A wide selection of animal species that are exclusively scavengers or that are not, but can make use of this method of feeding, can be found in various groups of the animal kingdom. Among these groups, we can find vertebrate and invertebrate animals.
In order to have a better understanding of these misunderstood species of scavenger animals, we are going to offer examples of these, starting with the group of invertebrate animals that have this type of diet:
Purple Sea Urchin (Echinoderm)
It is named for the purple color of its spikes, which it uses as its defense weapon and to be able to mobilize. It is characteristic of these animals that they have the ability to bury their body up to several meters below the seabed. Their food is made up of small mollusks or dead animals that can be found at the bottom of the sea, using the method of adhering to them in order to eat their meat.
Crab (Crustacean)
The crab has the ability to feed on both starfish and fish, snails or sea urchins. On the other hand, they are not exclusively necrophagous, because they also feed on the eggs of other marine species, as well as any other living being that is dead and whose corpse reaches the bottom of the sea, as is the case of the fiddler crab.
Insects
A typical example of carrion insects are green flies, meat flies, ants, wasps, cockroaches, giant millipedes or carrion beetles, which, as their name suggests, their food is made up of bodies of dead animals that are in a state of decomposition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk9NxTgzsL0
In addition, it is characteristic of these beetles to collect the corpses of invertebrates found, burying them to later feed them to their larvae.
Scavenger Birds
Without a doubt, it is the species of scavenger animals that are best known for that peculiar type of food they have. Here is a list of the most common scavenger birds, some of them surely known to everyone:
Griffon vulture
It is a very easy bird to recognize due to its characteristic white head with hardly any feathers. They have an amazing ability to detect and locate animal carcasses at great distances, because they have a very powerful view, particularly if it is open fields or areas where there is not much tall vegetation or trees.
They have a curved beak and powerful claws, particularly adapted to the type of scavenging, because they are used as tools to better tear the skin and tendons of the corpses on which they feed.
bearded vulture
It receives this peculiar name due to its strange habit of raising bones from the corpses on which it feeds to great heights to later proceed to release them. When the bones crash against the rocks they fracture, which makes it easier for them to consume and ingest them, as they are divided into smaller portions, but they do not do so to eat the marrow inside the bones, as popular belief indicates.
common raven
It is one of the most opportunistic animals that exist, and has the ability to vary its diet, according to the area in which it is found. If it is in a place where carrion abounds, it can tear the flesh from the corpses it feeds on due to its thick beak.
Scavenger Fish
Although it may not seem possible, scavengers can be found in the water, excluding sea urchins and crabs. Here are some examples of fish species that are exclusively scavengers or occasionally carrion eaters:
Tiburones
Sharks are not only predators, but, depending on the circumstances, they can become scavengers, contributing with their behavior to the exclusion of dead organic matter from the marine habitat.
remoras
It is a species of fish that adhere to the underside of sharks, establishing a symbiotic relationship with them, by which they are protected from becoming prey to other fish. Their way of feeding is to feed on the remains that the shark does not eat of the prey it hunts and sometimes, although it seems a bit disgusting, they can even consume the shark's feces.
Scavenging Reptiles
Within the reptile family we can also find some examples of animals that feed on carrion. In this section we will explain some of them:
There is no doubt that the best known scavenger reptile is the Komodo dragon, in addition to being the most feared due to the lethal danger that its bite entails, because it has been proven that only the bite can cause death due to the dangerous mix of bacteria found in your saliva and mouth.
Certainly the Komodo dragon is essentially a scavenger, but it also has the ability to hunt in groups. Other examples of reptile species that may include carrion in their diet are alligators, crocodiles, ocellated lizards, and freshwater turtles.
Animals Mammals Scavengers
Although they are not exclusively scavenging animals, they adapt to eating carrion if they find themselves in such a difficult situation that they have no other option. Some examples of mammals that can become scavengers are the following:
Raccoons
These are mammals that eat more carrion in areas where vegetation and wildlife are not abundant, because their usual diet consists of sweet fruits and invertebrate animals.
Hienas
They are animals that, on occasion, can hunt, if the situation so warrants. In the moments in which it follows the behavior of an animal that eats carrion, the hyena puts kleptoparasitism into practice, which means that it proceeds to attack other predators that have hunted a prey, exerting pressure on them to abandon it and thus be able to feed on it.
The hyenas will then proceed to consume many parts of the carcass, with the exception of hair, hooves and horns, because they do not have the ability to digest them properly.
Tasmanian devil
A small animal with nocturnal habits, it belongs to the marsupial family and is the largest of those that exist. It is very common to see it feeding on carrion, although it has the ability to hunt inferior prey and even its own size. One of its best-known characteristics is the excessive voracity it exhibits when it eats.
It is such that, making efficient use of its jaws and sharp teeth, it is quite capable of gobbling up its prey in a few minutes, which it does including skin and bone.
Jackal
Another of the mammalian animals that can be both a scavenger and a hunter, depending on the situation and the environment in which it finds itself. It is a nocturnal animal and is omnivorous. Its diet is very varied, since it can include everything from birds to reptiles, including amphibians and small dead mammals.
Coyote
It is another animal that has evolved and has been able to adapt and progress in various habitats, in part due to the multiplicity of foods that it can consume and that, if the situation requires it, it will also eat carrion, which is why it has been become the typical example of a born opportunistic animal.
Other cases of mammalian animals that can be occasional scavengers are foxes, wolves, hedgehogs, lions, badgers and bears.
I hope that this reading has been very useful and that it has given you a better understanding of these necessary creatures that are scavengers.
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