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Topic History of: What happens to birds and animals when they die? Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
Author
Message
zooloo
Is it that when animals get ill or near the end of their life they get caught and eaten before they drop dead and lie around
JK2006
Well, how many dead humans do we see? Very few. Why? Not predators or scavengers - we have our ways (hospitals, morgues, cremation, burials - all of which I've sadly recently become acquainted with) of disposing of corpses.
So could it be that animals and birds and rodents and insects all have their processes too?
We do, after all, end up as earth fodder eventually too.
zooloo
If an animal is feeling ill do they hide themselves away in their chosen lair?
A dead sparrow hawk was bone and feathers certainly in less than a week, then the corpse disappeared... it did/was return(ed)
It was under one of those garden sifting things, can't remember what they're called, put there by my mother who wanted the skeleton... don't ask.
The sifting thing kept it from being removed by a fox or whatever.
You'd probably be surprised how quickly creatures appear at the scene of a death and run off with it and eat it or tuck it away somewhere for later.
The Cat
Maybe you just answered your own question, JK. You see hundreds of animals, thousands of birds and millions of insects, yet only a small percentage of them die each day. This does explain the missing corpses. It's simple maths. It's the way wildlife has managed the countryside for centuries.
We seldom see it happen because much of it takes place at night. Owls, foxes, rodents, cats, dogs, insects, all contribute.
Add people such as park keepers, gardeners and those who pick up dead rabbits etc. to take home for dinner, and things become even clearer.
There's really no mystery.
veritas
are you suggesting there is a conspiracy amongst the animal kingdom to hide their dead?
Other posters are right-they get eaten by scavengers or consumed by maggots-you'd be surprised how quickly maggots can consume a body. That does of course raise the question-where do all the dead maggots go ?