Do scavengers ever eat their own?

A

You could view cannibalism as making perfect sense: the body of a member of your own species should contain exactly what you need for nourishment. However, it’s also likely to contain parasites and infections that are particular to your kind. Having a cast-iron stomach helps, but even then it seems that mammalian scavengers, such as wild boar, martens and foxes, actively avoid the meat of their own species. In fact, they tend to avoid carnivore carcasses in general, perhaps because many parasites are able to infect closely related species.

There are exceptions, though. Leopards, for example, are known to eat dogs as well as the carcasses of defeated rivals.

Leopards are rare scavengers, preferring to hunt a range of prey, often stashing their kills in trees.