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Ecological Functions of Vertebrate Scavenging

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Book cover Carrion Ecology and Management

Part of the book series: Wildlife Research Monographs ((WIREMO,volume 2))

Abstract

Although the process of converting nutrients sequestered within carcasses has historically been portrayed as occurring at the detrital level, there is a growing consensus that vertebrate scavenging is pervasive among ecosystems across the globe. Throughout this chapter we highlight the central role scavenging plays in ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycling and transport within and among ecosystems, biodiversity maintenance, and disease transmission dynamics. Vertebrate scavenging of carrion also can create more stable food webs by promoting food web complexity, providing routes by which communities may sequester resources at higher trophic levels, and subsidizing populations of vertebrates during periods of food limitation. However, anthropogenic activities that directly alter vertebrate scavenging communities or shift the competitive balance among the various groups of organisms that utilize carrion may have cascading impacts within ecosystems and disrupt ecosystem services provided by carrion consumers.

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Acknowledgements

Contributions of James Beasley were partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under Award Number DE-EM0004391 to the University of Georgia Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Savannah River Ecology Lab, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of Georgia, Aiken, SC, USA

    James C. Beasley

  2. Department of Psychology, University of New England, Biddeford, ME, USA

    Zachary H. Olson

  3. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków, Poland

    Nuria Selva

  4. National Wildlife Research Center, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Sandusky, OH, USA

    Travis L. DeVault

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  1. James C. Beasley
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  3. Nuria Selva
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  4. Travis L. DeVault
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Correspondence to James C. Beasley .

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  1. Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Cambio Global (CIBC-UAM), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Pedro P. Olea

  2. Centre for Functional Ecology (CFE), Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Patricia Mateo-Tomás

  3. Departamento de Biología Aplicada, Universidad Miguel Hernández, Elche, Spain

    José Antonio Sánchez-Zapata

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Beasley, J.C., Olson, Z.H., Selva, N., DeVault, T.L. (2019). Ecological Functions of Vertebrate Scavenging. In: Olea, P., Mateo-Tomás, P., Sánchez-Zapata, J. (eds) Carrion Ecology and Management. Wildlife Research Monographs, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16501-7_6

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