How dead animals help living animals

This video from the Netherlands says about itself (translated):

April 5th 2015

Scavengers like raven, red kite and countless insect species are directly dependent on dead animals for their food. Other animals benefit indirectly by eating insects on cadavers. This behavior is often exhibited by thrushes, robins and great tits.

In the video you can see two robins doing this side by side with a buzzard eating the carrion. Also hedgehogs are sometimes observed, it is known that hedgehogs sometimes eat carrion, but as insectivores they are particularly interested in the insects and larvae that live in and on the carcasses.

This video from the Netherlands says about itself (translated):

Squirrel and raven collect hair

April 5th 2015

Some animals use dead animals for collecting nesting material. Birds like blackbird and raven use hair of cadavers for building their nest. To the list of observed species that gather material from cadavers the squirrel can now be added. On a camera trap in Kempen-Broek nature reserve a squirrel was filmed collecting hair of a dead badger and taking them away to make its nest.

More about dead and living animals in the Netherlands is here.

More about Kempen-Broek is here.

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