Sacvengers Role in Ecosystem

[Debasis Bose]

Three species of carnivore scavenger (wild boar, jackal and jungle crow) with the mighty wild boar among the three is observed to be relishing the dead chital / spotted deer on this frame. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming the dead animal. I am confident other than these three conspicuous scavengers, the decomposers and detritivores must be in action too, to complete the process, by consuming the remains either killed and discarded by Leopard or died due to natural cause. NIKON D 7000, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 lens with 2 x TC @ 380mm, 1/3200s, ISO 6400, aperture 5.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Very objective image. This is inseparable from study of wildlife. It is highly appreciated that it has not gone out of your focus. Good that you could cover three hunters-cum-scavengers in one frame.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Shyamala Kumar]

Capturing the wild boar gorging on carrion is indeed uiique.Also it is interesting to see how each of the animal is patiently waiting its turn.TFS

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see this. Everybody places an important role. Even mongoose with their sharp teeth help in initially tearing up the tough hide of the carcass. Vultures these days are a concern as they are hardly seen in many areas. Even among vultures the smaller egyptian vultures with their curved beaks come last and take out the scraps from tough to reach places.

There are some images, short film and discussions about scavenging in the Natural History section at this link: http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1124

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice image to emphasise the role of the scavengers Debasis and you have got 3 in one frame. As mentioned by shakti da "this is inseparable from study of wildlife"....but is oft ignored by the casual observer for obvious reasons.

TFS
Roopak

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nicely documented. Most times there is more than 'one' around a kill. But its often ignored as most people like to only see the kill with a big animal around it. In one incident in africa I saw a wildebeest kill with warthog,hyena,lioness and hippo around it apart from vultures. Thanks for sharing.