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Effects Of Vulture Exclusion On Carrion Consumption By Facultative Scavengers, Jacob E. Hill, Travis L. Devault, James C. Beasley, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Jerrod L. Belant

USDA Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Vultures provide an essential ecosystem service through removal of carrion, but globally, many populations are collapsing and several species are threatened with extinction. Widespread declines in vulture populations could increase the availability of carrion to other organisms, but the ways facultative scavengers might respond to this increase have not been thoroughly explored. We aimed to determine whether facultative scavengers increase carrion consumption in the absence of vulture competition and whether they are capable of functionally replacing vultures in the removal of carrion biomass from the landscape. We experimentally excluded 65 rabbit carcasses from vultures during daylight hours and placed an …