Papers & outputs

Royal Society Open ScienceOpen accessIn the news

Heads or tails: selective body part feeding by scavengers across species and season

Meisuria NY, Spencer EE, Cairncross RJ, Davies EM, Tishler C, Finnerty PB, …, Newsome TM

Using camera traps on 40 kangaroo carcasses in the Wolgan Valley, this study shows that scavengers pick favourite body parts. Wedge-tailed eagles often start at the head and abdomen, dingoes favour the tail, and those preferences shift with the season and as a carcass decays, while red foxes change their behaviour much less.

Journal of MammalogyOpen access

Spatiotemporal scavenging dynamics of introduced red foxes across distinct Australian ecosystems

Newsome TM, Cairncross RJ, Meisuria NY, Finnerty PB, Spencer EE

Biological Invasions

Top hog not top dog? An invasive scavenger outcompetes native apex scavengers at carrion

Newsome TM, Spencer EE, Dickman CR, Cairncross RJ, Meisuria NY, Finnerty PB

In the Australian Alps, invasive feral pigs found and used carcasses as often as, or more often than, native apex scavengers such as dingoes and wedge-tailed eagles.

Frontiers in Veterinary ScienceOpen accessIn the news (3)

The final frontier: using carcasses for one health surveillance at the ecosystem interface

Barton KA, Finnerty PB, Rupasinghe R, González-Crespo C, Mahar JE, Eden J, …, Brookes VJ

Disease surveillance systems largely overlook carcasses. This perspective argues that vertebrate carcasses are a critical, under-used window onto pathogen transmission between wildlife, domestic animals and people – especially as mass mortality events increase and key scavengers such as vultures decline.

Ecology and EvolutionOpen access

Carrion Increases Landscape‐Scale Scavenger Activity and Interactions

Finnerty PB, Meisuria NY, Baker LJ, Cairncross RJ, Spencer E, Crowther MS, Newsome TM

Austral EcologyOpen access

Brushing up on carcass consumption: Investigating spatiotemporal scavenging dynamics of brushtail possums in Australian ecosystems

Finnerty PB, Bonat S, Spencer EE, Cairncross RJ, Meisuria N, Raña AF, …, Newsome TM

OikosOpen access

Scavenging and social interaction of an apex avian scavenger is governed by bioregional and seasonal variation

Meisuria N, Spencer EE, Cairncross RJ, Crowther MS, Newsome TM

Wedge-tailed eagles are Australia's apex avian scavenger. Monitoring 120 kangaroo carcasses across desert, forest and alpine bioregions, in open and closed habitats and warm and cool seasons, showed how strongly place and season shape when eagles scavenge and how they interact at carcasses.

Ecology and EvolutionOpen access

Carrion use by a reptile is influenced by season, habitat and competition with an apex mammalian scavenger

Cairncross RJ, Spencer EE, Meisuria N, Crowther MS, Newsome TM