Scavenging constitutes an understudied energy pathway in terrestrial ecosystems, with important connections to disease ecology. A prevailing null hypothesis in scavenging ecology is that carcasses serve as a risk-free meal for whatever animal first encounters them on the landscape. We tested this hypothesis by focusing on a suspected risk that scavengers would face at carcasses: the risk of pathogen exposure. We conducted field trials with mouse carcasses in which we manipulated potential cues to pathogen risk and then monitored scavenger foraging decisions. Separately, we studied pathogen and commensal bacteria dynamics within mouse carcasses through time in the laboratory to better understand how carcass age might impact pathogen risk to scavengers. A visual cue to pathogen risk in the field (carcasses deployed in groups of 7 in 1 m2) caused facultative vertebrate scavengers to pass on the opportunity to feed at a rate six-times higher than for carcasses deployed singly (46.9% vs. 7.7%), suggesting an ability to perceive cues to pathogen risk at carcasses. The cues to carcass age, however, produced no effect on facultative scavenger behavior in our field trials. Laboratory trials demonstrated that both commensal enteric bacteria and a known pathogen (Listeria monocytogenes) increased at least through bloat and active decay stages in carcasses, suggesting that cues to carcass age may not help scavengers reduce pathogen risk early in decomposition. In providing evidence counter to the free meal hypothesis, our results support the continued formation of an alternative risk-based framework to understand scavenger behavior at carcasses.
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