Is an animal considered a predator if it feeds on dead animals, or is it a just a consumer?
One of my students asked if a turkey vulture, feeding on a dead animal is condsidered a predator since it is eating an animal. Or not because it didn't hunt and kill the food.
Zoology - 5 Answers
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1 :
It's considered a scavenger
2 :
Animals that eat meat are carnivores, which can either be predators or scavengers. Predetors hunt and kill their own food. Scavengers mainly feast on the remains of other animals. There is no animal that exhibits the behavior of a pure predator or a pure scavenger.
3 :
Its a predator
4 :
It is a detritivore.
5 :
The Turkey Vulture is classified as a scavenger. It is not called a predator, because that is reserved for active hunters. To my knowledge, there are no known instances of a Turkey Vulture hunting and killing for food, so it is probably as close to a pure scavenger as you can find.
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