What do hyenas and trash have in common




















India is home to the striped hyena — smaller in size than the others — which can be found in semi-arid forest areas such as Rajasthan. For the most part however, striped hyenas play the role of waste disposal in the habitat. By consuming dead and decaying matter, they contain disease and help recycle nutrients in their ecosystem.

Spotted hyenas are the largest of all hyena species. They live in clans of up to 80 individuals, led by an alpha female. Their main predators are humans who have tracked, baited and poisoned them to the point where they are becoming a threatened species.

Photo: Andrew M. Intellectually too, hyenas are quite advanced. There is precious little research on the striped hyena found in India, yet another indicator of how unappealing the animal is, even in scientific and funding circles. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London.

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Science Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. Science The controversial sale of 'Big John,' the world's largest Triceratops. Herbivore s, or organisms that consume plants and other autotrophs, are the second trophic level.

Scavengers, other carnivores, and omnivore s, organisms that consume both plants and animals, are the third trophic level. Autotrophs are called producer s, because they produce their own food. Herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores are consumer s. Herbivores are primary consumer s. Carnivores and omnivores are secondary consumer s. Scavengers play an important role the food web. They keep an ecosystem free of the bodies of dead animals, or carrion.

Scavengers break down this organic material and recycle it into the ecosystem as nutrient s. Some birds are scavengers.

Vulture s only eat the bodies of dead animals. Vultures have many biological adaptation s that make them well-suited to being scavengers. Most have excellent eyesight and a strong sense of smell. They use these keen senses to locate rot ting carrion while they are soaring high over land. Unlike raptor s, or birds that hunt, vultures have weak talon s and beaks. Raptors use sharp talons and beaks to kill, while vultures do not need to overpower or secure their prey.

Many vultures are also bald, meaning they have no feathers on their head. This prevents bits of carrion, which can carry toxic bacteria , from sticking to feathers and infecting the bird.

Lammergeier s, or bearded vultures, have more specialized feeding habits than other vultures. Rather than eating meat, they survive almost entirely by eating bones. Lammergeiers drop the bones from great heights to break them into smaller pieces, then chew them up to get at the marrow , the soft tissue inside the bones.

Many insects are scavengers. Animals do not always have to be dead for these scavengers to feast on their decaying flesh. Blowflies often feed on the wounds in sheep, cattle, and other livestock. The dead flesh around the wound is eaten, while the animal itself remains relatively healthy. Some mammal s are scavengers.

Hyenas are often thought of as scavengers, but are also traditional carnivores. A lone hyena feeds mostly on dead animals. Hyenas may consume an animal that has died of injuries, or it may steal meat from another carnivore, such as a lion.

A pack of hyenas, however, will work together to hunt antelope and other creatures. Like the hyena, few scavengers eat decaying flesh exclusively.

In addition to the area around wounds of livestock, blowflies also feed on plant matter such as rotting garbage. Cockroach es feed on dead animals, but they also eat plants, paper, and other material. Sea creatures such as crabs and lobsters will eat carrion and most anything else they find.

Eels eat dead fish. A plastic shard piercing an intestine can kill a bird quickly. But typically the consumption of plastic just leads to chronic, unrelenting hunger. That would be very confusing. What makes plastic useful for people—its durability and light weight—increases the threat to animals.

Plastic hangs around a long time, and a lot of it floats. Some species of marine animals have been reported—so far—to have eaten or become entangled in plastic.

The first documented cases of seabirds ingesting plastic were 74 Laysan albatross chicks found on a Pacific atoll in , when plastic production was roughly a twentieth of what it is today. In hindsight, those birds seem like the proverbial canaries in a coal mine. All rights reserved. This story is part of Planet or Plastic? Learn what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics , and take your pledge.

Read this story and more in the June issue of National Geographic magazine.



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