A recipe for scavenging in vertebrates – the natural history of a behaviour
@article{Kane2017ARF, title={A recipe for scavenging in vertebrates – the natural history of a behaviour}, author={Adam Kane and Kevin Healy and Thomas Guillerme and Graeme Douglas Ruxton and Andrew L. Jackson}, journal={Ecography}, year={2017}, volume={40}, pages={324–334} }
Despite its prevalence, the importance of scavenging to carnivores is difficult to ascertain in modern day forms and impossible to study directly in extinct species. Yet, there are certain intrinsic and environmental features of a species that push it towards a scavenging lifestyle. These can be thought of as some of the principal parameters in optimal foraging theory namely, encounter rate and handling time. We use these components to highlight the morphologies and environments that would have…
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- Environmental Science
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