Australian scavengers don’t just eat everything and slink away. They approach a carcass like a buffet

Key points

• Researchers monitored 40 eastern grey kangaroo carcasses in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales over a summer and a winter. Camera traps showed that wedge-tailed eagles often fed first on the head and abdomen, while dingoes most often targeted the tail.
• Red foxes were usually left with leftovers because dingoes and eagles reached the carcasses first. The scavengers favoured fat-rich parts early on, then shifted to protein-dense areas such as the hindlimbs as the carcass decomposed.
• In winter, dingoes and eagles fed more on the abdomen than in summer.