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.

5 Responses to “Is an animal considered a predator if it feeds on dead animals, or is it a just a consumer?”

1. bizarro00vision on August 10th, 2009 5:43 pm

   It’s considered a scavenger

2. bontul on August 10th, 2009 8:43 pm

   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. justaquestions on August 11th, 2009 9:57 am

   Its a predator

4. Craig on August 14th, 2009 7:32 am

   It is a detritivore.

5. oracle1 on August 16th, 2009 1:52 am

   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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