Browsing by Subject "Carrion"

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    Carnivore carcasses are avoided by carnivores
    (Wiley, British Ecological Society , 2017-06-13) Moleón, Marcos; Martínez-Carrasco Pleite, Carlos; Muellerklein, Oliver C.; Getz, Wayne M.; Muñoz-Lozano, Carlos; Sánchez-Zapata, José A.; Sanidad Animal; Facultad de Veterinaria
    Ecologists have traditionally focused on herbivore carcasses as study models in scavenging research. However, some observations of scavengers avoiding feeding on carnivore carrion suggest that different types of carrion may lead to differential pressures. Untested assumptions about carrion produced at different trophic levels could therefore lead ecologists to overlook important evolutionary processes and their ecological consequences. Our general goal was to investigate the use of mammalian carnivore carrion by vertebrate scavengers. In particular, we aimed to test the hypothesis that carnivore carcasses are avoided by other carnivores, especially at the intraspecific level, most likely to reduce exposure to parasitism. We take a three-pronged approach to study this principle by: (i) providing data from field experiments, (ii) carrying out evolutionary simulations of carnivore scavenging strategies under risks of parasitic infection, and (iii) conducting a literature-review to test two predictions regarding parasite life-history strategies. First, our field experiments showed that the mean number of species observed feeding at carcasses and the percentage of consumed carrion biomass were substantially higher at herbivore carcasses than at carnivore carcasses. This occurred even though the number of scavenger species visiting carcasses and the time needed by scavengers to detect carcasses were similar between both types of carcasses. In addition, we did not observe cannibalism. Second, our evolutionary simulations demonstrated that a risk of parasite transmission leads to the evolution of scavengers with generally low cannibalistic tendencies, and that the emergence of cannibalism-avoidance behaviour depends strongly on assumptions about parasitebased mortality rates. Third, our literature review indicated that parasite species potentially able to follow a carnivore–carnivore indirect cycle, as well as those transmitted via meat consumption, are rare in our study system. Our findings support the existence of a novel coevolutionary relation between carnivores and their parasites, and suggest that carnivore and herbivore carcasses play very different roles in food webs and ecosystems.
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    Comparing scavenging in marine and terrestrial ecosystems: a case study with fish and gull carcasses in a small Mediterranean island
    (Elsevier, 2022-01-20) Redondo Gómez, Daniel; Quaggiotto, Maria Martina; Bailey, David Mark; Eguía, Sergio; Morales Reyes, Zebensui; López Pastor, Beatriz de las N.; Martín Vega, Daniel; Martínez-Carrasco Pleite, Carlos; Sebastián González, Esther; Sanchéz Zapata, José Antonio; Moleón, Marcos; Sanidad Animal; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Veterinaria
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    Los Sarcophagidae (Insecta, Diptera) de un ecosistema cadavérico en el sureste de la Península Ibérica
    (Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, Servicio de Publicaciones, 2003) Romera Lozano, Elena; Arnaldos Sanabria, María Isabel; García García, María Dolores; González-Mora, Dolores; Zoología y Antropología Física; Facultad de Biología
    En este trabajo se presentan los resultados del estudio de la fauna de sarcofágidos recogidos en una comunidad sarcosaprófaga, en el su reste de la Península Ibérica. Esta aportación se enmarca en un estu dio sobre la fauna entomológica sarcosaprófaga en el Mediterráneo Occidental con el fin de conocer la composición faunística y su diná mica temporal. El estudio se ha realizado durante un año completo, lo que ha permitido evaluar la sucesión de la fauna, así como la relación de las especies con los diferentes estados de descomposición del cadáver. Se han identificado 13 especies, de las que se ofrecen datos sobre su evolución estacional y grado de asociación con una o más fases de descomposición, datos de gran importancia para el estable cimiento del intervalo postmortem (PMI) en esta área geográfica.
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    Smart carnivores think twice: red fox delays scavenging on conspecific carcasses to reduce parasite risk
    (Elsevier, 2021-09-25) Martínez-Carrasco Pleite, Carlos; Sánchez Zapata, José Antonio; Moleón Paiz, Marcos; Gonzálvez Juan, Moisés; Sanidad Animal; Facultad de Veterinaria
    The recent SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has highlighted the need to prevent emerging and re-emerging diseases, which means that we must approach the study of diseases from a One Health perspective. The study of pathogen transmission in wildlife is challenging, but it is unquestionably key to understand how epidemiological interactions occur at the wildlife-domestic-human interface. In this context, studying parasite avoidance behaviours may provide essential insights on parasite transmission, host-parasite coevolution, and energy flow through food-webs. However, the strategies of avoiding trophically transmitted parasites in mammalian carnivores have received little scientific attention. Here, we explore the behaviour of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and other mammalian carnivores at conspecific and heterospecific carnivore carcasses using videos recorded by camera traps. We aim to determine 1) the factors influencing the probability of foxes to practice cannibalism, and 2) whether the scavenging behaviour of foxes differ when facing conspecific vs. heterospecific carcasses. We found that red foxes were generally reluctant to consume mesocarnivore carrion, especially of conspecifics. When recorded, consumption by foxes was delayed several days (heterospecific carcasses) or weeks (conspecific carcasses) after carcass detection. Other mammalian scavengers showed a similar pattern. Also, meat-borne parasite transmission from wild carnivore carcasses to domestic dogs and cats was highly unlikely. Our findings challenge the widespread assumption that cannibalistic or intra-specific scavenging is a major transmission route for Trichinella spp. and other meat-borne parasites, especially for the red fox. Overall, our results suggest that the feeding decisions of scavengers are probably shaped by two main contrasting forces, namely the nutritional reward provided by carrion of phylogenetically similar species and the risk of acquiring meat-borne parasites shared with these species. This study illustrates how the detailed monitoring of carnivore behaviour is essential to assess the epidemiological role of these hosts in the maintenance and dispersion of parasites of public and animal health relevance.
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    Understanding potential implications for non-trophic parasite transmission based on vertebrate behavior at mesocarnivore carcass sites
    (Springer, 2021-06-26) Gonzálvez Juan, Moisés; Martínez-Carrasco Pleite, Carlos; Moleón Paiz, Marcos; Sanidad Animal; Facultades de la UMU::Facultad de Veterinaria
    High infection risk is often associated with aggregations of animals around attractive resources. Here, we explore the behavior of potential hosts of non-trophically transmitted parasites at mesocarnivore carcass sites. We used videos recorded by camera traps at 56 red fox (Vulpes vulpes) carcasses and 10 carcasses of other wild carnivore species in three areas of southeastern Spain. Scavenging species, especially wild canids, mustelids and viverrids, showed more frequent rubbing behavior at carcass sites than non-scavenging and domestic species, suggesting that they could be exposed to a higher potential infection risk. The red fox was the species that most frequently contacted carcasses and marked and rubbed carcass sites. Foxes contacted heterospecific carcasses more frequently and earlier than conspecific ones and, when close contact occurred, it was more likely to be observed at heterospecific carcasses. This suggests that foxes avoid contact with the type of carcass and time period that have the greatest risk as a source of parasites. Overall, non-trophic behaviors of higher infection risk were mainly associated with visitor-carcass contact and visitor contact with feces and urine, rather than direct contact between visitors. Moreover, contact events between scavengers and carnivore carcasses were far more frequent than consumption events, which suggests that scavenger behavior is more constrained by the risk of acquiring meat-borne parasites than non-trophically transmitted parasites. This study contributes to filling key gaps in understanding the role of carrion in the landscape of disgust, which may be especially relevant in the current global context of emerging and re-emerging pathogens.