Last updated on February 5th, 2022
Several bivalve mollusks are commonly named Clam, and it is mostly applied to those who live like infauna and are edible. They spend a great part of their lives midway buried under the riverbeds’ or seafloor’s sand.
They reside in both marine and freshwater environments and North America possesses its greatest diversity.
Unlike mussels and oysters, they are not attached to any substrate in the culinary sense while they are living.
Some have only a year of life cycles, whereas at least a few or one may have outlived 500 years. Here we bring you numerous animals that look at clams as their prey.
Animals that eat clams:
- Harbor Seals
- Dolphins
- Starfishes
- Channel Catfish
- Muskrats
- Turtles
- Bears
- Crabs
- Sea Otters
- Crocodiles
Here are 10 animals that eat clams.
1. Harbor Seals
Harbor seals mainly feed on invertebrates, fish, and shellfish like crabs, squids, octopuses, and clams.
Harbor seals are also referred to as common seals, and this true seal is found along Northern Hemisphere and temperate marine coasts.
They are also present in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans as well as the North and Baltic Seas.
They have characteristic V-shaped nostrils and are gray, tan, silvery-white, or brown. Additionally, they can grow 1.85 m (6 feet) in length and weigh around 130 kg.
They maintain their body temperature with the help of the Blubber present under their skin.
Females have a higher life expectancy year than males and their global population is between 350,000-500,000.
2. Dolphins
Dolphins are mostly carnivores and predominantly eat fish and squid, albeit some, for instance, the killer whales, can include large mammals such as seals in their diet. They also feed on crabs and clams.
The mammals under the Cetacea infraorder are commonly referred to as Dolphins and there are 40 extant dolphin species.
Their size varies from small 1.7 meters Maui’s dolphin to a 9.5 m long killer whale. A few times, they are even seen leaping approximately 9.1 m.
Seals are more flexible than them, but some of their species can achieve a 29 km/hr speed for a short duration.
Their conical-shaped teeth help capture fast-moving prey and their hearing capabilities are so great and well-adapted for water and air that some blind ones can even survive.
3. Starfishes
Luidia and Astropecten are some primitive starfish, which digest their prey in their cardiac stomach after swallowing it whole.
They mostly eat mussels, sand dollars, oysters, sponges, corals, and clams, because these animals move slowly and are easy prey for them.
Starfish are also known as sea stars, and asteroids are class Asteroidea’s star-shaped echinoderms.
Roughly 1,900 of its species are found in all world ocean seabeds. Most of them are with five arms emitted from a central disc.
However, the number of arms depends on the species. For instance, the Antarctic Labidiaster annulatus may have more than 50 arms.
Most of their disc and some of their arms are occupied by their gut and their oral surface’s center is the location of their mouth.
4. Channel Catfish
Channel catfishes feed on aquatic plant matter, mollusks, crayfish, insects, fish, and clams. If they can catch small mammals, that can also be their meal.
Channel catfishes are the most abundant fishes of North America and are also called ‘channel cat’ informally.
Kansas, Tennessee, Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri’s official fish. These are the United Sates’ most highly fished species of catfish, and they are targeted by approx eight million anglers every year.
It’s been broadly introduced in Asia, South America, and Europe, and in many countries, it is considered an invasive species legally. They are also indigenous to Nearctic.
They often reside with their close relative, blue catfish less common but larger than them in the same waterways.
5. Muskrats
Muskrats are primarily herbivorous, so their main diet consists of duck potato, sedges, water lily, willows, smartweed horsetail, and cattail. They may also eat animal matter like mussels, crayfish, and clams.
Muskrats are indigenous to North America, and this medium-sized rodent was also introduced in parts of South America, Europe, and Asia.
They have been spotted in wetlands, and can significantly affect their ecology. They also serve as a fur and food resource to humans. Full-grown ones weigh between 0.6-2 kg and are 20-35 cm long.
They have medium-dark brown colored fur that covers them and a tail protected by scales instead of hair.
6. Turtles
Some turtles are carnivores, and wild turtles are inclined to feed on fish, frogs, tadpoles, snails, as well as clams.
Turtles’ main traits include their shell mainly developed from their ribs, and they are referred to as Testudines, a reptile order, which is divided into two main groups, hidden neck, and side-necked turtles.
The living and lately extinct turtle species sums up to 360.
On land, they lay their eggs, and crocodiles and birds are their close relatives in accordance with their genetic evidence.
7. Bears
Bears mostly eat fish along with meat, grass, roots, berries, larvae, and clams’ meat by opening the clams’ shells with their claws.
Bears belong to the Ursidae family. These carnivoran mammals have been categorized as caniforms. They can be spotted in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.
The modern bears are characterized by their shaggy hair, massive bodies, stocky legs, long snouts, little rounded ears, tiny tails, and plantigrade paws accompanied by five non-retractile claws.
The giant panda nearly has bamboo for its complete nutrition, polar bears are carnivores, and the six remaining species are omnivores.
8. Crabs
Crabs are not picky about their food, and they feed on worms, shrimps, living and dead fishes, small clams, and other crabs.
Crabs are the Brachyura infraorder’s decapod crustaceans. They mostly have a little projecting tail typically hidden under their thorax.
There are no oceans of the world where they do not live. Usually, the thick exoskeleton that covers them primarily consists of greatly mineralized chitin.
The variation in size starts from the pea crabs that are only some millimeters wide to the 4 m wide Japanese spider crab.
They frequently show noticeable sexual dimorphism, and females mostly have smaller claws.
9. Sea Otters
These animals have the capability of walking on land and also living in the oceans exclusively.
Marine invertebrates like the sea urchins, crustaceans, a few fish species, and several clams are its most common prey.
They are on the list of rare mammals that use tools such as rocks to open the shell or dislodge their prey.
Sea otters are marine mammals and full-grown ones weigh around 14 to 45 kg, and thus, there is no other member as heavy as them in the weasel family.
They have the animal kingdom’s densest coat of fur; this thick coat is their primary source of insulation.
10. Crocodiles
Crocodiles belong to the family Crocodylidae, and these substantial semi-aquatic reptiles live across the tropics of the Americas, Australia, Asia, and the swampy regions of Africa.
Crocodiles, gharial, and alligators are similar in appearance but have distinct biological families, although it is difficult to spot the morphological difference between alligators and crocodiles.
Their ecology, morphology, size, and behavior differ slightly across their species, though they also have numerous similarities.
They are semi-aquatic and carnivorous animals, and they mostly eat vertebrates like mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish.
They may also include invertebrates like clams in their diet, although it depends on the species and their age.
Conclusion
The animals that eat clams are harbor seals, dolphins, starfishes, channel catfishes, muskrats, turtles, bears, crabs, sea otters, and crocodiles. However, animals like bears, muskrats, and turtles will only consume clams when other food sources are scarce.
