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Scavenging, or necrophagy, is a carnivorous feeding behaviour in which a predator consumes corpses or carrion
Carrion

Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters, or scavengers, include Hyenas, Vultures, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, Black Bears, Komodo Dragons, Bald Eagles, Raccoons and Blue-tongued lizards....
 that were not killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species. Scavengers play an important role in the 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....
 by contributing to the decomposition
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....
 of dead animal remains. Decomposer
Decomposer

Decomposers are organisms that consume dead organisms, and, in doing so, carry out the natural process of decomposition. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use organic material to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and development....
s complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers.

Well known scavengers include 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, burying beetle
Burying beetle

Burying beetles or sexton beetles are the best-known members of the family Silphidae . Burying beetles are true to their name. Most of these beetles are black with red markings on the elytron ....
s, blowflies, yellowjacket
Yellowjacket

Yellowjacket or yellow-jacket is the common name in North America for predatory wasps of the genus Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English language countries....
s, and raccoon
Raccoon

Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most widespread species, the Raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are considerably lesser-known....
s.






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Scavenging, or necrophagy, is a carnivorous feeding behaviour in which a predator consumes corpses or carrion
Carrion

Carrion refers to the carcass of a dead animal. Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eaters, or scavengers, include Hyenas, Vultures, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, Black Bears, Komodo Dragons, Bald Eagles, Raccoons and Blue-tongued lizards....
 that were not killed to be eaten by the predator or others of its species. Scavengers play an important role in the 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....
 by contributing to the decomposition
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....
 of dead animal remains. Decomposer
Decomposer

Decomposers are organisms that consume dead organisms, and, in doing so, carry out the natural process of decomposition. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use organic material to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and development....
s complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers.

Well known scavengers include 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, burying beetle
Burying beetle

Burying beetles or sexton beetles are the best-known members of the family Silphidae . Burying beetles are true to their name. Most of these beetles are black with red markings on the elytron ....
s, blowflies, yellowjacket
Yellowjacket

Yellowjacket or yellow-jacket is the common name in North America for predatory wasps of the genus Vespula and Dolichovespula. Members of these genera are known simply as "wasps" in other English language countries....
s, and raccoon
Raccoon

Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most widespread species, the Raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are considerably lesser-known....
s. Many 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 that hunt regularly, such as 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 and lion
Lion

The lion is a member of the family Felidae and one of four big cats in the genus Panthera. With exceptionally large males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger....
s, will scavenge if given the chance or use their size and ferocity to intimidate the original hunters.

Animals which consume feces
Feces

Feces, faeces, or f?ces is a waste product from an animal's gastrointestinal tract expelled through the anus during defecation....
, such as dung beetles, are referred to as coprovores
Coprophagia

Coprophagia is the consumption of feces, from the Greek language ??p??? copros and fa?e?? phagein . Many animal species practice coprophagia as a matter of course; other species do not normally consume feces but may do so under unusual conditions....
. Animals which primarily consume dead plants are referred to as detritivore
Detritivore

Detritivores, also known as detritus feeders or saprophages, are heterotrophs that obtain nutrients by consuming detritus . By doing so, they contribute to decomposition and the nutrient cycles....
s. The eating of carrion from the same species is referred to as cannibalism
Cannibalism (zoology)

In zoology, cannibalism is the act of one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecology interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded for more than 1500 species ....
.

As a human behaviour


In humans, necrophagy is a taboo
Taboo

A taboo is a strong social prohibition against words, objects, actions, or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group, culture, society, or community....
 in most societies. In the Qur'an
Qur'an

The Qur?an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe the Qur?an to be the book of divine guidance and direction for mankind, and consider the original Arabic text to be the final revelation of God....
 slanderers are stigmatized as those who eat the flesh of the dead body of the person they slander. The Aghori
Aghori

The Aghori are a Hindu sect believed to have split off from the Kapalika order in the fourteenth century AD. Most other Hindus condemn them as non-Hindu because of their cannibalistic rituals....
, a Hindu 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 humans
Homo (genus)

Homo is the genus that includes anatomically modern humanss and their close relatives. The genus is estimated to be about 2.5 million years old, evolving from Australopithecine ancestors with the appearance of Homo habilis....
 were scavengers that used stone tool
Stone tool

A stone tool is, in the most cave general sense, any tool made of Rock . Although stone-tool-dependent cultures exist even today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric societies that no longer exist....
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 brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
s possible.

The eating of human meat, a practice known as anthropophagy (and known more commonly as cannibalism
Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating other humans. The ritualistic eating of human flesh is also known as anthropophagy, from Greek: ?????p??, anthropos, "human being"; and fa?e??, phagein, "to eat"....
), is extremely taboo in almost every culture.