Carrion

Disease transmission

Carrion can harbor many infectious and disease-causing agents including viruses (e.g. rabies virus, West Nile virus), bacteria (e.g. Bacillus anthracis, Clostridium botulinum, Francisella tularensis, Listeria monocytogenes, Pasteurella multocida, Yersinia pestis), bacterial toxins (e.g. botulinum) and helminths (e.g. Trichinella species).

Several outbreaks of disease, attributed to direct or indirect contact with carrion, have been reported in humans and animals.

Consumption as food

Consumption by invertebrates

Hundreds of invertebrate animals feed on carrion. In terrestrial settings, some ant species eat carrion (e.g. red imported fire ants), as do some bees (i.e. vulture bees), and many beetles (e.g. burying beetles, dermestid beetles, silphine beetles) and flies (e.g. bone skippers, blow flies, flesh flies). Several species rely on carrion for survival or reproduction, including the vulture bee Trigona crassipes, the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, and the bone skipper fly Thyreophora cynophila.

Many aquatic animals also eat carrion. Necrophagous marine invertebrates include cephalopods (e.g. Octopus vulgaris), hermit crabs (e.g. Coenobita clypeatus), star fish (e.g. Luidia ciliaris), whelks (e.g. Tritia reticulata), amphipods (e.g. Eurythenes atacamensis), and annelids (e.g. zombie worms). Necrophagous freshwater invertebrates include the horse leech Haemopis marmorata, the crayfish Procambarus clarkii, and the diving beetle Thermonectus succinctus.

Consumption by vertebrates

Large numbers of vertebrate animals feed on carrion, including different species of birds (e.g. cinereous vultures, red-tailed hawks, carrion crows), fish (e.g. black hagfish, abyssal grenadiers), mammals (e.g. spotted hyenas, wild boars), reptiles (e.g. Komodo dragons, brown tree snakes) and even amphibians (e.g. midwife toad larvae, túngara frog larvae).

With the possible exception of some hagfish species, the only vertebrates known to rely on carrion for survival are the New World vultures (e.g. black vultures) and Old World vultures (e.g. cinereous vultures).

Most of the animals that eat carrion opportunistically are carnivores (e.g. spotted hyenas, abyssal grenadiers) or omnivores (e.g. wild boars), but some herbivores (e.g. Egyptian mastigures) also eat carrion in times of food scarcity.

Consumption by early hominins

Early hominins (e.g. Homo habilis, Homo erectus) are thought to have obtained at least some of the protein and fat in their diet by scavenging meat and bone marrow from the carcasses of large mammals abandoned by predators. This is based on several observations. First, tools of the Early Pleistocene (e.g. Oldowan choppers) were more suited to butchering carcasses than hunting. Second, at many archaeological sites, animal bones have been recovered where tool cuts made by H. habilis are present over tooth marks made by carnivores. In addition, it has been observed that current-day predators (e.g. lions) leave large portions of their kills intact, and it is thought that saber-toothed cats in the Middle Pleistocene would have done likewise.

Later in the Quaternary period, hominins turned more to hunting for food. At what stage this happened is unclear. Some researchers propose that Homo neanderthalensis was more a hunter than a scavenger based on stable isotope analyses and other evidence. However, this interpretation of the isotopic data has been questioned. Later still, hominins turned to herding wild animals and the husbandry of domesticated animals.

Consumption by modern humans

Carrion consumption by modern humans (Homo sapiens) has been documented on several occasions. Examples of carrion eaten include predator kills (e.g. zebra, wildebeest, impala, giraffe), beached marine mammals (e.g. dead whale) and dead livestock (e.g. water buffalo). At least two outbreaks of disease (anthrax and botulism) have been reported, one in 1987, the other in 2002. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), additional (unpublished) outbreaks of botulism have occurred from marine carrion consumption.

Unlike vultures, coyotes and other carrion-eating animals, humans are extremely sensitive to botulinum toxin. This toxin is produced by Clostridium botulinum, a bacterium found in soil and seabeds that can colonize animal bodies after they’ve died.

Among modern-day hunter-gatherer communities who regularly eat carrion as part of their diet, some precautionary behaviors have been documented. These include prioritizing reaching carcasses quickly after death, butchering and disemboweling the carcass, and cooking or sun-drying the meat and viscera recovered.

In religious literature

In Noahide law

Main article: Noahide laws

The thirty-count laws of Ulla (Talmudist) include the prohibition of humans consuming carrion. This count is in addition to the standard seven law count and has been recently published from the Judeo-Arabic writing of Shmuel ben Hophni Gaon after having been lost for centuries.

In Islam

Animals killed by strangling, a violent blow, a headlong fall, being gored to death, or from which a predatory animal has partially eaten are considered types of carrion, and are forbidden in Islam.

In English literature

Sometimes carrion is used to describe an infected carcass that is diseased and should not be touched. An example of carrion being used to describe dead and rotting bodies in literature may be found in William Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar (III.i):

Another example can be found in Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe when the title character kills an unknown bird for food but finds "its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing".

Carrion flowers and stinkhorn mushrooms

Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects that aid in reproduction. Plants that exhibit this behavior are known as carrion flowers. Stinkhorn mushrooms are examples of fungi with this characteristic.

Other images

File:Totes Wildkaninchen.jpg|Rabbit carrion in Germany. File:Lizard roadkill that other animals eat, helping out to clean the environment.jpg|Butterfly puddling on lizard carrion. File:Example of a pig carcass in the bloat stage of decomposition.jpg|Dead pig in the bloat stage of decomposition. File:Dead dog in Ulaanbaatar.jpg|Dog carrion in Mongolia. File:Flies settle on a sheep carrion.jpg|Flies settling on sheep carrion. File:Decomposing possum.jpg|Heavily colonized opossum carrion.

References

References

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