Scavenging is a carnivorous and herbivorous eating behavior in which the eater feeds on dead animals and plant material in their habitat. Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming dead animals and plant material. Decomposers and detritivores complete this process, by consuming the remains left by scavengers.
Video Scavenger
Etymology
Scavenger is a change from scavager, from Middle English skawager which means "customs collector", from skawage meaning "custom", from Old North French Maps Scavenger
Animal
Compulsory rinsing is very rare in the animal kingdom, as it is difficult to find enough carcasses without spending too much energy. In vertebrates, only vultures and possibly some pterosaurs are obliged to eat carcasses, because flyers that fly on land are the only animals that can find enough carcasses.
The famous invertebrate scavengers of animal material include burying beetles and flies, which are eater eaters, and yellowjacket.
Most scavengers are facultative scavengers who get most of their food through other methods, especially predation. Many large hunting carnivores regularly, such as hyenas and wolves, but also animals rarely considered scavengers, such as African lions, leopards, and wolves will scavenge if given a chance. They can also use their size and ferocity to intimidate genuine hunters (cheetahs are important exceptions). Almost all scavengers above the size of the insects are predators and will hunt if not enough carcasses are available, as some ecosystems provide enough dead animals throughout the year to keep the predators eating them themselves. Scavengers of wild dogs and crows often exploit roadkill.
Scavengers of dead plant materials include termites that build nests in pasture and then collect dead plant material for consumption in the nest. The interactions between scavengers and humans are seen today most often in suburban settings with animals such as opossums, polecats and raccoons. In some towns and villages in Africa, scavenging of hyenas is also common.
In the prehistoric era, the Tyrannosaurus rex species may have been the top predator, preying on hadrosaurs, ceratopsia, and perhaps teenage sauropods, although some experts have suggested dinosaurs especially scavengers. The debate about whether Tyrannosaurus is a top predator or scavenger is one of the longest feuds that takes place in paleontology; However, most scientists now agree that Tyrannosaurus is an opportunistic carnivore, who mostly acts as a predator but scavenges when it can. Recent studies have also shown that while adult Tyrannosaurus rex will vigorously gain little despite scavenging, a small theropod of about 500 kg may have the potential of obtaining a level similar to that of hyenas, although it is not enough for them to rely on scavenging.
Animals that consume dirt, such as dung beetles, are referred to as coprovores. Animals that collect tiny particles of dead organic matter from animal and plant origin are referred to as detritivores.
As a human behavior
In the 1970s Lewis Binford suggested that early humans primarily obtained meat through scavenging, not through hunting. In 2010 Dennis Bramble and Daniel Lieberman proposed that early human ancestors of carnivores then develop long-range running behaviors that enhance the ability to scavenge and hunt: they can reach the scavenger sites faster and also chase a single animal until it can be safely killed at at close range. range due to fatigue and hyperthermia.
In modern humans, necrophagy (eating dead/rotting flesh) is rare in most societies. This may be an adaptation to the risk of disease, since humans have lower levels of protective acids in the gastrointestinal tract, compared with species that are specialized scavengers. Many examples have occurred in history, especially in wartime, where necrophagy and cannibalism can emerge as a survival behavior.
Jobs
"Scavenger" emerged as a job in the 1911 Census of England and Wales. This job title is applied to someone who cleans the streets and disposes of trash, generally a worker (modern garbage collector, janitor, or street cleaner) employed by local public health authorities.
Young people in developing countries can go back to scavenging and thus develop entrepreneurial skills to operate in an unfriendly economic context.
In India, the term "manual scavenging" is used to describe the removal of raw (fresh and unprocessed) raw human excreta from buckets or other containers used as toilets or from pit latrines. The workers pile the shit into the basket and can take it to their head to a location that is sometimes several kilometers from the outhouse. India officially banned manual scavengers since 1993, but the practice continues in 2014.
The term "scavenger" originates as a "scavager" or "scaveger", officials relating to import duties and inspection (scavage) of imported goods. The "scavagers" are found with officials like the City of London as an aleconner or beadle. These officials seem to have been accused of also cleaning the streets, and the name replaces the older people for those who do this task. This profession is important for urban settings that operate at the highest capacity. The garbage collection work and the scavenger profession allow the city population to continue unhindered by disease outbreaks most often caused by the accumulation of physical waste. This work is very important before the times of functional sewer systems and indoor water channels.
Gallery
See also
- The consumer resource system
References
Further reading
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary
- Smith TM, Smith RL (2006) Ecological Elements . Sixth Edition. Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA.
- Chase, et al. The Scavenger Handbook . Bramblewood Press, Santa Barbara, CA.
- Rufus, Anneli, and Lawson, Kristan. Scavenger Manifesto '. Tarcher, New York.
- "Tasmanian devil". Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Chicago: EncyclopÃÆ'Â|dia Britannica, 2009. Credo Reference. Web. September 17, 2012.
- Kruuk, H. Hunter and Hunted: The Relationship between Carnivores and Humans. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Print.
External links
- Sew Life From Other People's Memo - slideshow by The New York Times
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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