Carrion
dead and decaying flesh of an animal
Carrion (from Latin caro 'meat'), also known as a carcass, is the decaying flesh of dead animals. Carrion may be of natural or anthropic origin (e.g. wildlife, human remains, livestock), and enters the food chain via different routes (e.g. animals dying of disease or malnutrition, predators and hunters discarding parts of their prey, collisions with automobiles).
Carrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. Examples of carrion-eating animals include vultures, eagles, hyenas, Virginia opossum, Tasmanian devils, and coyotes. Many invertebrates, for example carrion beetles, burying beetles, blow-fly maggots, and flesh-fly maggots, also eat carrion. All of these animals, together with microbial decomposers, help to recycle nitrogen and carbon in animal remains.
The act of eating carrion is termed necrophagy or necrophagia, and animals that do this are described as necrophages or carrion feeders. The term scavenger is widely used to describe carrion-eating animals too, but this term is broader in scope, encompassing also the consumption of refuse and dead plant material.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Carrion” as dead and decaying flesh of an animal. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as dead and decaying flesh of an animal. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q202994. The Library of Congress control number is sh2003004645. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carrion” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.