What cleans

up nature’s waste?

Today you will be a naturalist. A naturalist is a scientist who studies plants and animals in nature. You

will take a walk through the

forest and look for what cleans

up nature’s waste.

Flies lay their eggs in the

carrion (dead flesh) and the babies, which

are called larvae,

(maggots) are born and get

lots of nutrients from

the dead animal!

Walking through the

forest we spot a carrion

beetle laying her eggs

inside a rat.

Walking a little further

we see carrion beetle babies

(larvae) eating a different

dead animal.

Another name for

decomposers is

scavengers. Scavengers eat plants

and animals they did not

kill themselves.

Some examples

of scavenger

s are worms, beetles,

flies, ants, hermit

crabs and fungus.

We are lucky that

some organisms

LOVE dung!!!

Fungi are also decomposers.

Some scavengers

are invertebrates

.

Some scavengers

are vertebrates.

It’s a good thing we have

so many friends to

take care of nature’s waste!