What organism feeds on dead plants and animals and helps recycle them?
1 Answer
Some animals eat dead animals or carrion. They are called scavengers.
Explanation:
A scavenger is an organism that mostly consumes decaying biomass, such as meat or rotting plant material. They usually consume animals that have either died of natural causes or been killed by another carnivore.
Scavengers help break down or reduce organic material into smaller pieces. These smaller pieces are then eaten by decomposers. Decomposers eat dead materials and break them down into chemical parts.
They play an important role in the food web. They keep the ecosystem free of the bodies of dead animals or carrion. They break down the organic material and recycle it into the ecosystem as nutrients.
Vultures, Blowflies, hyenas, crabs, lobsters and eels are examples of scavengers.
The recycling of matter brought about by the scavengers and decomposers helps define the biogeochemical cycle that drives the biosphere.
