Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The Circle of Life

Do you ever find yourself wondering, "Hey, where are all the dead animals?" I mean, the world is full of animals, and given that the majority don't end up in our freezers and are subject to mortality, it follows that the world must be filled with dead animals, too. Right? I mean, the decomposition process is good, but it's not that good. Dead creatures don't just disappear a la Yoda or a goomba.

The most I've seen of actual dead wild animals--exempting anything killed by a car or a shotgun or flying into a window--are dead birds (okay, this one might have flown head-on into a window) and dead squirrels. I actually saw one squirrel drop dead from a branch when I was still living in Ohio. Squirrel heart attack? Acorn poisoning? Squirrelicide? I'll never know.

I'm sure wild life conservationists know. And probably Wikipedia. But I'm just musing here, and a preliminary search of Yahoo answers yielding unsatisfying results .

1 comment:

Heidi said...

I was thinking of you today as I was trying to deal with the avian friend who decided to kick the bucket in my backyard.
I'll have to find a cheerier connection to you next time!