Content
- the food chain
- what are butcher animals
- land butcher animals
- aquatic butcher animals
- birds that eat carrion
Despite their fame, carrion animals play a very important and fundamental role in the life cycle. thanks to the carrion-eating animals organic matter can decompose and become available to plants and other autotrophic beings. Not only that, they also clean the nature of corpses that can be sources of infections. In this PeritoAnimal article we will explain what the butcher animals, what are, its role in the environment, classifications and examples.
the food chain
To talk about carrion animals, we need to understand that a food chain is made up of the feeding relationship between different species within an ecosystem. It explains how energy and matter pass from one species to another within a biotic community.
Food chains are usually represented with an arrow that connects one being to another, with the direction of the arrow's direction representing the direction of the energy of matter.
Within these chains, the organisms organize themselves into trophic levels, so that primary producers autotrophs, are plants, capable of obtaining energy from the sun and inorganic materials and producing a complex organic matter that will serve as food and energy for the heterotrophic or primary consumers such as herbivores, for example.
These consumers will be the food of secondary consumers or predators, which will then serve as food for predators or top consumers. And where do the carrion-eating animals in this cycle? What happens to their bodies when they die? Understand below.
what are butcher animals
When animals die, their body is decomposed by microscopic beings like fungi and bacteria. Thus, the organic matter in their bodies is converted into inorganic matter and is once again available to primary producers. But, these tiny beings need the action of other beings to carry out these primary decomposition of dead matter. And that's where carrion animals come into the story.
Animals that feed on decaying meat have evolved to depend on organisms that are already dead rather than hunting for their own food, most of them are carnivores and some omnivores feed on rotten vegetable matter and even paper. On some occasions the scavengers can even hunt for their own food, but this only happens in situations of extreme hunger, when the prey is almost dead. there are several types of carrion animals, you will meet them below.
land butcher animals
The best known species of terrestrial scavengers are found in some parts of Africa. Chances are you've already seen hyenas in action in some documentary. They are savanna scavengers and are always on the lookout to steal food hunted by lions and other large predators.
Surprising prey from a pack of lions is quite difficult as when they outnumber hyenas they will literally defend themselves tooth and nail. Hyenas can wait until the lions are sated or try to steal prey from other solitary predators such as leopards or cheetahs. In addition, they can also hunt sick or injured animals that cannot move.
Another group of animals that is very characteristic among carrion animals, but less known for this function, are insects. Depending on the species they can be carnivores, like the butcher waspss, or omnivores, such as cockroaches, which can even feed on paper or cloth.
There are also scavenger dogs, whether individuals belonging to the species Canis lupus familiaris, the domestic dog (this explains because dog rolls on carrion) and other species such as the jackal and the coyote.
aquatic butcher animals
Other examples of animals that feed on decaying meat, perhaps lesser known, are aquatic scavengers. You crabs and lobsters they feed on dead fish or any other decaying organism found in the aquatic environment. Eels also consume dead fish. and the big White shark, one of the ocean's biggest predators, also feeds on dead whales, dead fish and sea lion corpses.
birds that eat carrion
One of the best known species of carrion birds is the vulture. They search from the earth's surface to the sky looking for dead animals and feeding exclusively on them.
They have super-developed vision and smell. While their beaks and claws are not as strong as other birds, they don't use them as much for hunting. they are also bald, this adaptation helps them not to accumulate carrion remains between the feathers and to avoid infections by pathogenic bacteria.
Of course there are other carrion trees as well, check out a list of birds that eat carrion and their names:
- Bearded Vulture (Bone Breaker Vulture): as the nickname suggests, these carrion birds feed on the bones of dead animals. They take the bones and throw them from great heights to break them and then eat them.
- Black-headed Vulture: similar to the vulture and its food. However, it is more common to see vultures eating carrion and garbage closer to areas inhabited by humans, it is not uncommon to see them flying with debris between their claws.
- Condor: similar to the vulture, its most striking feature of this carrion animal is that it watches over its dead prey for several days before descending to feed on it.
- Egyptian Vulture: this type of vulture is the last carrion bird to appear at carrion time. They feed on skin and that meat that sticks to the bone. In addition, they supplement their diet with eggs from small animals, insects or excrement.
- Crow: they are more opportunistic carrion-eating birds and feed on run over animals and other remains of dead animals, but the carrion-eating crow also hunts small animals.
