Carrion

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Carrion

Carrion (from the Latin caro, meaning meat) refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivore

Carnivore

A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' , is any animal with a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from animals living or dead .In a more general sense, an animal may be considered a carnivore if it prefers feeding on animal matter over plant matter....
s and omnivore

Omnivore

Omnivores are species that eating both plants and animals as their primary food source. They are opportunistic, general feeders not specifically adapted to eat and digest either meat or plant material exclusively....
s in most ecosystem

Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms in an area functioning together with all of the non-living physical factors of the environment....
s. Examples of carrion-eaters, or scavengers, include Hyena

Hyena

The Hyaenidae is a mammalian family of order Carnivora. The Hyaenidae family, native to both African and Asian continents consists of four living species, the Striped Hyena and Brown Hyena , the Spotted Hyena and the Aardwolf ....
s, Vulture

Vulture

Vultures are scavenger birds, feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals. Vultures are found on every continent except Antarctica and Oceania....
s, Virginia Opossum

Virginia Opossum

The Virginia Opossum , commonly known as the North American Opossum, is the only marsupial found in North America north of the Rio Grande River....
, Tasmanian Devil

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian Devil is a carnivore marsupial now found in the wild only in the Australian island states and territories of Australia of Tasmania....
s, Black Bear

Black bear

Black bear may refer to:*American Black Bear*Asiatic Black Bear, including its subspecies *Maine Black Bears, the athletic teams representing the University of Maine...
s, Komodo Dragon

Komodo dragon

The Komodo dragon is a species of lizard that inhabits the islands of Komodo , Rinca, Flores, and Gili Motang in Indonesia. A member of the monitor lizard family , it is the Largest organisms#Reptiles , growing to an average length of and weighing around ....
s, Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America that is most recognizable as the List of national birds and national symbol of the United States....
s, Raccoons and Blue-tongued lizard

Blue-tongued lizard

Blue-tongued skinks are the genus Tiliqua, which contains some of the largest members of the skink family . They are commonly called blue-tongued lizards in Australia, where true lizards do not naturally occur....
s. Many invertebrates, such as worms and carrion beetle

Carrion beetle

Silphidae is a family of beetles, commonly known as carrion beetles or burying beetles, comprising about 200 species. Many species are carnivorous, although some are carrion-feeders....
s (family Silphidae) also eat carrion and play an important role in recycling animal remains.

Carrion begins to decay the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria

Bacteria

The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals....
.

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Encyclopedia

Carrion (from the Latin caro, meaning meat) refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivore

Carnivore

Omnivore

Ecosystem

Hyena

Vulture

Vultures are scavenger birds, feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals. Vultures are found on every continent except Antarctica and Oceania....
s, Virginia Opossum

Virginia Opossum

The Virginia Opossum , commonly known as the North American Opossum, is the only marsupial found in North America north of the Rio Grande River....
, Tasmanian Devil

Tasmanian Devil

The Tasmanian Devil is a carnivore marsupial now found in the wild only in the Australian island states and territories of Australia of Tasmania....
s, Black Bear

Black bear

Black bear may refer to:*American Black Bear*Asiatic Black Bear, including its subspecies *Maine Black Bears, the athletic teams representing the University of Maine...
s, Komodo Dragon

Komodo dragon

Bald Eagle

The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America that is most recognizable as the List of national birds and national symbol of the United States....
s, Raccoons and Blue-tongued lizard

Blue-tongued lizard

Carrion beetle

Bacteria

The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals....
. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to exude a foul odor caused by the presence of bacteria and the emission of cadaverine

Cadaverine

Cadaverine is a foul-smelling molecule produced by protein hydrolysis during putrefaction of animal tissue. Cadaverine is a toxic diamine with the formula NH25NH2, which is similar to putrescine....
and putrescine

Putrescine

Putrescine is an organic chemical compound NitrogenHydrogen24NH2 . It is related to cadaverine; both are produced by the breakdown of amino acids in living and dead organisms and both are toxic in large doses....
. Some plant

Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
s and fungi

Fungus

Decomposition

Decomposition refers to the process by which tissues of dead organisms break down into simpler forms of matter. Such a breakdown of dead organisms is essential for new growth and development of living organisms because it recycles the finite chemical constituents and frees up the limited physical space in the biome....
carrion and attract insect

Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
s that aid in reproduction. Plants that exhibit this behavior are known as carrion flower

Carrion flower

Carrion flowers or Stinking flowers are flowers that emit an odor that smells like decomposition flesh. While a typical flower may be stereotyped as a colorful, sweet-smelling structure that attracts insects and rewards them with pollen or nectar, this scenario is somewhat perverted for carrion flowers because of the repulsive nature o...
s. Stinkhorn

Stinkhorn

The Phallaceae are a family of fungi, commonly known as stinkhorn mushrooms. Belonging to the fungal order Phallales, the Phallaceae have a worldwide distribution, but are especially prevalent in tropical regions....
mushroom

Mushroom

A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, hence the word mushroom is most often applied to those fungi that have a stem , a cap , and gills on the unde...
s are examples of fungi

Fungus

A fungus is a Eukaryote organism that is a member of the Kingdom Fungi . The fungi are a monophyletic group, also called the Eumycota , that is phylogeny distinct from the morphologically similar slime molds and water molds ....
with this characteristic.

The word Carrion is often used in danish mythology to describe animals that have been sacrificed and animals that have been killed due to the god's fury. Sometimes carrion is used to describe an infected carcass that is diseased and shouldn't be touched. An example of carrion in literature is in Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

'Gaius Julius Caesar' , July 13, 100 BC ? March 15, 44 BC,) was a Roman Republic military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
, Act 3 scene 1, "this foul deed shall smell above the earth with carrion men, groaning for burial", in which the word carrion implies that the bodies are rotting and infected with disease and bacteria. Another example can be found in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe. It was first published in 1719 and sometimes regarded as the first novel in English. The book is a fictional autobiography of the title character, an English castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela, encountering Indigenous peoples of the Americas, captives, and mu...
when the title character kills an unknown bird for food but finds "its flesh was Carrion, and fit for nothing."