Carrion

Carrion (from Latin caro 'meat'), also known as a carcass, is the decaying flesh of dead animals.^[1] Carrion may be of natural or anthropic origin (e.g. wildlife, human remains, livestock), and enters the food chain via different routes (e.g. animals dying of disease or malnutrition, predators and hunters discarding parts of their prey, collisions with automobiles).^[2][3]

Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eating animals include crows, vultures, humans, hawks, eagles,^[4] hyenas,^[5] Virginia opossum,^[6] Tasmanian devils,^[7] coyotes^[8] and Komodo dragons. Many invertebrates, such as the carrion and burying beetles,^[9] as well as blow-fly maggots (e.g. Calliphora vomitoria) and flesh-fly maggots, also eat carrion.^[10] All of these organisms, together with microbial decomposers, contribute to recycling nitrogen and carbon in animal remains.^[11]

The act of eating carrion is termed necrophagy or necrophagia,^[12] and organisms that do this are described as necrophages or necrophagous animals.^[13] The term scavenger is widely used to describe carrion-eating animals too, but this term is broader in scope, encompassing also the consumption of refuse and dead plant material.^[14]

Carrion begins to decay at the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. 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 and putrescine.^[15]