web of nature
Burying-beetles
The marten chases the squirrel, the squirrel nibbles on its spruce cone and beautiful beetles walk on the dead squirrel – they are burying beetles!
Carcass? Yummy!
The beetles have smelling organs sensitive to the smell of dead animals. They dig away soil next to the carcass, pull it into the pit, and lay their eggs beneath it. Both larvae and adult animals eat of the rotting body.
Who eats who?
Most animals in nature eat or get eaten by other animals and many eat plants or fungi. Numerous animals and fungi live of dead organisms, and are called decomposers. Plants take up nutrients from the ground.
Quick process
Decomposition is usually quick. Soft tissues disappear in a few days or weeks. Hard tissues, like elk horns, can lie around for two, three years, until mice and fungi have done their job.
