Vertebrate scavengers on the beach.

<p>a) Brahminy kite consuming a mullet; b) Whistling kite gripping a fish; c & d) White-bellied sea eagle starting to lift a fish carcass off the beach; e) Lace monitor approaching carrion; f) Red fox at an experimental plot containing fish carcasses.</p

Density response to experimental augmentation of fish carcasses by different size classes of ghost crabs.

<p>Measure of organism size is the burrow opening diameter of ghost crabs. The metric of density change is the ratio of mean densities per plot before and after the addition of carrion (i.e., response ratio = mean ind. m^-2 plot_i size-class_x BEFORE) / mean ind. m^-2 plot_i size-class_x AFTER). Letters denote homogeneous groups as defined by SNK post-hoc testing following significant main effects in ANOVA. Boxes encompass the interquartile range (Q1 to Q3) and whiskers are the 10^th and 90^th percentile.</p

Aggregative responses of avian scavengers to fish carcasses at the beach-dune interface.

<p>a & b) Mixed flock of two brahminy kites and three whistling kites feeding on fish carrion in an area of approximately 3 x 10 m; b) Torresian crow reacting to freshly-deposited fish carrion; c & d) flocks of crows and silver gulls amassing around fish carrion; f) mixed flock of avian scavengers, with a white-bellied sea eagle amongst crows and gulls.</p

Temporal distribution of scavenging activity in experimental plots by the six vertebrate consumers recorded.

<p>Sunrise was close to 06:00 and sunset close to 18: 00 during the experiment (U2 is the test statistics for Watson’s test of circular uniformity; *** p < 0.001).</p

Comparison of the density (mean, SE) of ghost crabs before (open bars) and during (filled bars) the experimental augmentation of carrion availability.

<p>Fish carcasses were added to treatment plots only during the ‘carrion pulse’ phase of the experiment.</p

Comparison of species richness (top panel) and abundance of vertebrate scavengers between experimental plots to which fish carcasses were added (treatment) and in unaltered plots (‘control’).

<p>The measure of abundance is the mean number of individuals recorded per 24 h of camera deployment.</p