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Scavenger

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	Scavenger
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	Topics Scavenger Topic Home Scavenging, or necrophagy, is a carnivorous feeding behaviour in which a predator consumes corpses or carrionCarrion Overview Carrion is the carcass of a dead animal that becomes food for other scavenging animals such as hyenas, vultures, Tasmanian D... that were not killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystemEcosystem Overview An ecosystem, a contraction of "ecological" and "system", refers to the collection of components and processes that comprise... by contributing to the decompositionDecomposition Decomposition is a phenomenon common in the sciences of biology and chemistry.... of dead animal remains. DecomposerDecomposer 'Decomposers' are organisms that break down organic materials to gain nutrients and energy.... s complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers. Well known scavengers include vultureVulture Vultures are scavenging birds, feeding mostly on the carcasses of dead animals.... s, burying beetleBurying beetle Overview Burying beetles or sexton beetles are the best-known members of the family Silphidae.... s, blowflies, yellowjacketYellowjacket Yellowjackets are black-and-yellow wasps of the genus Vespula or Dolichovespula.... s, and raccoonRaccoon Raccoons are nocturnal mammals in the genus *Procyon* of the Procyonidae family.... s. Many large carnivoreCarnivore A carnivore , meaning 'meat eater' , is an animal that eats a diet consisting mainly of meat, whether it comes from live ani... s that hunt regularly, such as hyenaHyena Hyenas are moderately large terrestrial carnivores native to Africa and the Indian Subcontinent.... s and lionLion Summary The lion is a mammal of the family Felidae and one of four "big cats" in the genus Panthera.... s, will scavenge if given the chance. Animals which consume fecesFeces Summary Feces, faeces, or fces is waste product from an animal's digestive system tract expelled through the anus duri... , such as dung beetles, are referred to as coprovoresCoprophagia Coprophagia is the consumption of feces, from the Greek copros and phagein .... . Animals which primarily consume dead plants are referred to as detritivoreDetritivore Detritivores are organisms that recycle detritus, returning it into the food chain.... s. The eating of carrion from the same species, is referred to as cannibalismCannibalism (zoology) In zoology, cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded for more than 1500 sp... . As a human behaviour In humans, necrophagy is a tabooTaboo Summary A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbi... in most societies. In the Qur'anQur'an The Qur'an , is the central religious text of Islam.... slanderers are stigmatized as those who eat the flesh of the dead body of the person they slander. The AghoriFacts About Aghori The Aghori are a Hindu sect believed to have split off from the Kapalika order in the fourteenth century.... , a HinduHindu A Hindu , as per modern definition, is an adherent of the philosophies and scriptures of Hinduism, the religious, phi... 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 early humansHomo (genus) *Homo* is the genus that includes modern humans and their close relatives.... were scavengers that used stone toolStone tool Overview A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made of stone.... s 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 carcasses[2]. It has been suggested that such an adaptation ensured a food supply that made large brainBrain In animals, the brain, or encephalon , is the control center of the central nervous system.... s possible. The eating of human meat, a practice known as anthropophagy (and known more commonly as cannibalismCannibalism Cannibalism , also called anthropophagy is the act or practice of humans eating other humans.... ), is extremely taboo in almost every culture.