Carrion acts as a hotspot of animal activity within many ecosystems globally, attracting scavengers that rely on this food source. However, many scavengers are invasive species whose impacts on scavenging food webs and ecosystem processes linked to decomposition are poorly understood. Here, we use Australia as a case study to review the extent of scavenging by invasive species that have colonised the continent since European settlement, identify the factors that influence their use of carcasses, and highlight the lesser-known ecological effects of invasive scavengers. From 44 published studies we identified six invasive species from 48 vertebrates and four main groups of arthropods (beetles, flies, ants and wasps) that scavenge. Invasive red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), domestic dogs (Canis familiaris), feral pigs (Sus scrofa), black rats (Rattus rattus) and feral cats (Felis catus) were ranked as highly common vertebrate scavengers. Invasive European wasps (Vespula germanica) are also common scavengers where they occur. We found that the diversity of native vertebrate scavengers is lower when the proportion of invasive scavengers is higher. We highlight that the presence of large (apex) native vertebrate scavengers can decrease rates of scavenging by invasive species, but that invasive scavengers can monopolise carcass resources, outcompete native scavengers, predate other species around carcass resources and even facilitate invasion meltdowns that affect other species and ecological processes including altered decomposition rates and nutrient cycling. Such effects are likely to be widespread where invasive scavengers occur and suggest a need to determine whether excessive or readily available carcass loads are facilitating or exacerbating the impacts of invasive species on ecosystems globally.

中文翻译：

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以入侵物种为食

腐肉是全球许多生态系统中动物活动的热点，吸引着依赖这种食物来源的食腐动物。然而，许多食腐动物是入侵物种，人们对它们对食腐食物网和与分解相关的生态系统过程的影响知之甚少。在这里，我们以澳大利亚为案例研究，回顾了自欧洲殖民以来在这片大陆上殖民的入侵物种的食腐程度，确定了影响其利用尸体的因素，并强调了入侵食腐动物鲜为人知的生态影响。从 44 项已发表的研究中，我们确定了来自 48 种脊椎动物和 4 个主要食腐节肢动物（甲虫、苍蝇、蚂蚁和黄蜂）的 6 种入侵物种。入侵性红狐（Vulpes vulpes）、家犬（Canisamilis）、野猪（Sus scrofa）、黑鼠（Rattusrattus）和野猫（Feliscatus）被列为最常见的脊椎动物食腐动物。入侵的欧洲黄蜂（德国胡蜂）也是它们出现的地方常见的食腐动物。我们发现，当入侵食腐动物的比例较高时，本地脊椎动物食腐动物的多样性较低。我们强调，大型（顶端）本地脊椎动物食腐动物的存在可以降低入侵物种的食腐率，但入侵食腐动物可以垄断尸体资源，击败本地食腐动物，抢先于尸体资源周围的其他物种，甚至促进影响其他物种的入侵崩溃和生态过程，包括改变分解速率和养分循环。这种影响可能在入侵食腐动物出现的地方广泛存在，并表明需要确定过多或容易获得的尸体负载是否正在促进或加剧入侵物种对全球生态系统的影响。