"One of the most interesting aspects of this study was learning the sheer amount, the volume of carcasses, consumed by vertebrates."Īnimals with backbones partially or fully scavenged more than three-quarters of the carcasses, research showed. "It's a really nice way of communicating science, tickling people's senses about a really integral part of the ecosystem.
"All of these photos, it's kind of like spying on wildlife," Abernethy said. Collectively, the photos - nearly 400,000 were analyzed - told a story of scavenger efficiency, scavenger species composition and carcass persistence as functions of carcass size, habitat type, and season. Hidden cameras captured "scavenging events" - an animal feeding on a carcass. Scientists did trials both in a cool-weather time of year and in warm weather to measure changes in scavenger community dynamics as a result of seasonal differences in what microbes and invertebrates eat. They used carcasses of three different types and sizes - rat, rabbit and wild pig, representing small, medium and large. Department of Energy, researchers conducted scavenging trials across four habitat types: clearcut, mature hardwood forest, immature pine forest and mature pine forest. Working at the Savannah River Site, a 78,000-hectare coastal plain in South Carolina managed by the U.S. The nutrients from carcasses are reaching higher levels of the food web, and that knowledge is now getting fleshed out more." is getting what and how much, and how carcass size and habitat affect all of that. "But there hasn't been much on who among the vertebrate scavengers - coyotes, vultures, hogs, foxes, etc. "There's been a lot of research on how much carrion invertebrates eat, and they do eat a lot, and how the size of a carcass can tell you how much goes to vertebrates or invertebrates," Abernethy said. student in integrative biology in Oregon State University's College of Science and second author on the study. "A common perception is most things are depredated and eaten quickly, but in actuality, carrion is a highly available resource that's contributing significantly to the food web," said Erin Abernethy, a Ph.D. The findings are important because carrion, the decaying flesh of dead animals, is a key nutrient for vertebrates worldwide and comparatively little is known about how all of the interplay works.
New research has shed fresh light on the largely understudied area of vertebrate scavenging ecology, particularly how biotic factors - living organisms - and abiotic ones such as heat or cold influence communities of scavengers.
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