How Glade and Forest Affect Carrion Scavengers: A Camera-Trap Study

Co-author Irina Rotenko

We wanted to know which animals scavenge on elk carcasses and how often they do it. So we set up camera-traps near two dead elks in Naliboki Forest (a large forest-swamp terrain in northwestern Belarus).

Both elks died in early winter, but under different circumstances. In the first case: a poacher shot a big female elk, but she escaped and died later. Her body lay in a small glade, visible from the forest edge and the sky. In the second case: a brown bear killed a big male elk and hid his body under the pine tree canopy in a boggy area. The two carcasses were slightly more than 2 km apart, so we expected the same scavengers to visit them.

We watched the carcasses throughout the winter. Wild boars, ravens, and eagles consumed most of the elk carcass in the glade. Other scavengers, such as red foxes, raccoon dogs, pine martens, minks, polecats, weasels, jays, and wolves, also came by, but they had a minor role in eating the carcass. See some of the photos below.

In contrast, the second elk carcass was hidden under the canopy of a boggy pine forest. Wolves, red foxes, and raccoon dogs were the main scavengers of this carrion. They had to compete with each other and sometimes with a lone wild boar. Jays, pine martens, and weasels also fed on some parts, but they were not very important. Surprisingly, neither ravens nor eagles showed up at the carcass. The bear never came back to its kill either.