From hyenas in Africa to grey wolves in Europe and the Andean condor in South America – a large variety of scavengers populates the earth. These animals provide a myriad of benefits as well as disbenefits to people. The concept of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) aims at understanding and analysing such human-nature connections. In a recent study, Aguilera-Alcalá et al. (2020) focused on non-material NCP provided by different species of scavengers in Spain.

Scavengers are animals that totally or partially rely on carrion as a food resource. Multiple contributions of scavengers to human well-being are documented: from regulating diseases, recycling nutrients to helping humans find food and having spiritual meanings and uses in cultures around the world. Yet, human-scavenger relations also lead to conflicts because of the predatory behaviour of…