Scavengers

Scavengers are creatures that eat other dead creatures, including the remains of predators’ kills. In doing so, they help to clean up decaying material in the environment. They form an important part of any ecosystem, starting the process in which nutrients and energy are released from dead matter for re-use, and reducing the survival chances of organisms that cause disease. Scavengers are found throughout the animal kingdom – they may be invertebrates such as worms, insects and crustaceans, or vertebrates, including mammals, fish and birds.

Black-backed jackals

Black-backed jackals, pied crows and a spotted hyena pick scraps off the carcass of an oryx in Namibia’s Etosha National Park, in the clip Scavengers clean oryx carcass.

A variety of scavenging birds

A variety of scavenging birds jostle each other at Lethaka Pools in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, in the clip Vultures gather to drink. Different species of vulture have different ‘skills’ and techniques, allowing all a chance to get something at the kill.

Jackals

Jackals try to open up a zebra carcass at Meno a Kwena camp in Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, but eventually leave the job to the vultures. The action is recorded in the clip Jackal scavenge around zebra carcass.

Freshwater crabs

Freshwater crabs hide under a clod of mud, waiting for debris to float down the Nxamaseri Channel in Botswana’s Okavango Delta. See Crabs hole up in the Nxamaseri Channel.

Jackals & vultures

Jackals snarl at vultures and each other to get at the carcass of a zebra killed by lions at Leroo La Tau. Soon there is only enough left for crows. The clip Vultures and jackals fight over a zebra carcass shows the scene.

elephant reduced to skin and bone

Even a mighty elephant is reduced to skin and bone through the activity of scavengers. Earth-Touch filmed an elephant carcass over a few weeks in Etosha Pan, Namibia, starting with the clip Dead elephant attracts scavengers and ending with Vulture excrement stripes elephant carcass.

flies and maggots

Invertebrates may be small but they do a huge clean-up job in nature. The clip Flies and maggots consume tsessebe carcass was filmed in the Okavango Delta.

marabou

Marabou storks are predominantly scavengers, gripping meat in their bills and tearing it off the carcass by shaking their heads from side to side. But they do hunt on occasion, as in the clip Birds feast at fish trap, filmed in Botswana’s Moremi Game Reserve, where they are wading in shallow water to catch fish as the Okavango Delta pools dry up.

hippo carcass

One of the lions filmed feeding on a hippo carcass in Moremi Game Reserve seems to have a broken tail, possibly sustained in a fight with hyenas over access to the dead hippo. See Lions feed from hippo carcass.