Practise saying it a few times. Detritivores are living organisms that are vital to Earth’s ecological health. They are a very important part of the food chain. There are many kinds of detritivores and their role to eat dead organic material or detritus. This might be decomposing plants and animals as also animal faeces.
Most detritivores are insects, fish and a few crustaceans. They also include birds, reptiles and mammals that are primarily scavengers.
For instance, some crabs and fish feed off the material they find on the sea bed or sea floor. Dead animals, fish scales, fish excreta and dead plants are a major part of the diet of these ‘bottom feeders’. They perform the essential function of keeping the water clean.
Insects such as termites and woodlice eat dead wood. Wasps, flies and butterflies gather in their hundreds on animal carcasses.
Earthworms are great detritivores because they enrich and fertilize the soil with their faeces after they eat the debris they find in the soil!
Among birds, vultures are superb detritivores. They only scavenge and don’t hunt actively. Large mammals including lions, foxes and hyenas are opportunistic detritivores. They occasionally feed on dead meat if they cannot find live prey.
There is a difference between detritivores and decomposers.
Decomposers are fungi, bacteria and microscopic organisms that consume and finally break down what the detritivores have partly digested and excreted!
Picture Credit : Google