Have you ever noticed that when you’re hiking or just taking a walk in the woods, you rarely see a dead animal? There are plenty of animals out there, and like everyone else, they die. So why don’t we ever stumble upon their bodies? Is there some kind of secret forest clean-up crew that scrubs the evidence before we get there? Well, yes, there is.
Jennifer DeBruyn is an environmental microbiologist who studies decomposition and biodegradation, and is super cheerful for someone who spends her days looking closely at rotting corpses. DeBruyn says the fact that we don’t see dead animals, even though animals are dying all the time, highlights the difference between how decomposition works for animals versus plants.
Unlike plants, which can take a while to break down, animals decompose very quickly. That’s because animal bodies are high in moisture and high in nutrients, DeBruyn says. Animals have ...
