Stinkhorn mushrooms are examples of fungi with this characteristic. Plants that exhibit this behavior are known as carrion flowers. Some plants and fungi smell like decomposing carrion and attract insects that aid in reproduction. Not long after the animal has died, its body will begin to exude a foul odor caused by the presence of bacteria and the emission of cadaverine and putrescine. Many invertebrates like the burying beetles, as well as maggots of calliphorid flies and Flesh-flies also eat carrion, playing an important role in recycling nitrogen and carbon in animal remains.Ĭarrion begins to decay the moment of the animal's death, and it will increasingly attract insects and breed bacteria. Examples of carrion-eaters include vultures, hawks, eagles, hyenas, Virginia Opossum, Tasmanian Devils, coyotes, Komodo dragons, and burying beetles. Yet scarce enough their hunger to supply,įreebase (0.00 / 0 votes) Rate this definition:Ĭarrion refers to the dead and decaying flesh of an animal.Ĭarrion is an important food source for large carnivores and omnivores in most ecosystems. The wolves will get a breakfast by my death, Not all that pride that makes thee swell,Īs big as thou dost blown up veal Nor all thy tricks and slights to cheat, Any flesh so corrupted as not to be fit for food. William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor. Quickly, to him, and excuse his throwing into the water. A name of reproach for a worthless woman.

To lodge their lothsome carrion under ground.Ĭriticks, as they are birds of prey, have ever a natural inclination to carrion. Till, warn’d by frequent ills, the way they found, Guillaume de Caron is the first on record, living in 1086 and Eudo, his father, is. Sheep, oxen, horses fall and heap’d on high, The surname Carrion was first found in Normandy (French: Normandie), the former Duchy of Normandy, where they held a family seat in the seigneurie of Cairon in Calvados, in the arrondissement of Caen, in the canton of Creully. Ravens are seen in flocks where a carrion lies, and wolves in herds to run down a deer. William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure. This foul deed shall smell above the earth,Ī weight of carrion flesh, than to receive

They did eat the dead carrions, and one another soon after insomuch that the very carcases they scraped out of their graves.ĭo, as the carrion does, not as the flower. The carcase of something not proper for food. The charity of our death-bed visits from one another, is much at a rate with that of a carrion crow to a sheep we smell a carcase.Įtymology: charogne, Fr. Relating to carcases feeding upon carcases.Īnd made a prey for carrion kites and crows,Įv’n of the bonny beasts he lov’d so well. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (0.00 / 0 votes) Rate this definition:

Carrion definition