Indoor corpses may be attacked by pets, domestic dogs, cats, ants, and rodents during postmortem period. Outdoor corpses may be attacked by many predacious and scavenger animals and exposed to complete destruction, and bones and belongings of the dead person may be scattered all over a large area due to postmortem animal activity. Many animal species are members of this food chain. Examples of such species in North America are black bear ( Ursus americanus), grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos), and wolverine ( Gulo gulo).Postmortem animal activity is an important step in incorporating protein, fat, and carbohydrates in corpses to the food chain. Scavengers, eating dead animals when they can find them. The turkey vulture ( Cathartes aura) of the Americas is one of the only bird species that has a sense of smell, which is utilized to find carrion. Some birds are specialized as scavengers, most notably the New World vultures (family Cathartidae) and Old World vultures (family Accipitridae). Many marine crustaceans are important scavengers, including most species of crabs and gammarids. Invertebrates are the most abundant scavengers in terrestrial ecosystems, especially earthworms and insects such as beetles, flies, and ants. However, scavengers are important in the initial stages of biomass decomposition and recycling. The valuable ecological service of recycling of dead biomass is not just performed by scavengers-other detritivores such as bacteria, and fungi are also important, and in fact are largely responsible for the final stages of the decomposition and humification process. Excessive accumulations of dead plants can also bind up much of the nutrient capital of ecosystems, so that not enough is recycled for use by living plants, and ecosystem productivity becomes constrained by nutrient limitations. A similar effect can be caused to living plants by dead plant biomass. Large quantities of dead animal biomass can represent a indirect health hazard to living animals, by enhancing the survival of pathogens. Scavengers provide a very important ecological service, because they help to rapidly reduce dead animals and plants to simpler constituents, and thereby prevent an excessive accumulation of dead biomass. Scavengers are part of the detrital food web of ecosystems. Examples of such species in North America are black bear ( Ursus americanus ), grizzly bear ( Ursus arctos ), and wolverine ( Gulo gulo ).
Some mammals are opportunistic scavengers, eating dead animals when they can find them. The turkey vulture ( Cathartes aura ) of the Americas is one of the only bird species that has a sense of smell, which is utilized to find carrion. Some birds are specialized as scavengers, most notably the New World vultures (family Cathartidae) and Old World vultures (family Accipitri-dae). Valuable ecological service of recycling of dead biomass is not just performed by scavengers -other detritivores such as bacteria, and fungi are also important, and in fact are largely responsible for the final stages of the decomposition and humification process.
Large quantities of dead animal biomass can represent an indirect health hazard to living animals, by enhancing the survival of pathogens. Some scavengers specialize on feeding upon dead animals, or carrion, while others feed more generally on dead plants and animals. A scavenger is an animal that seeks out and feeds upon dead and/or decaying organic matter.
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