Elephant expert Iain Douglas-Hamilton developed what’s known as the “carcass ratio,” or the percentage of dead elephants found in a census. Scientists look for these decomposition sites to better understand the number of elephants living, and dying, in a population. And all those visiting elephants leave piles of poop that host several species of dung beetle and countless other small creatures, Poole adds.
#SCAVENGERS ANIMAL PATCH#
What’s more, a carcass site becomes soaked with blood and fluids released during decomposition, creating a fertile patch of ground where microbes release nutrients into the soil. Photographer Charlie Hamilton James describes the emotional experience of photographing vultures for National Geographic-from placing a camera in a carcass for a bird's-eye view of a feeding frenzy to discovering vulture parts for sale in illegal markets. “The maggots take over at some point, and the whole carcass is just seething with maggots,” says Poole.
#SCAVENGERS ANIMAL FULL#
While dead elephants are far from an everyday feast-especially since their numbers have plummeted in Africa from millions to a few hundred thousand-Virani points out that scavengers such as vultures evolved alongside big migrating herd animals like elephants and wildebeest and depend on their numbers.Įlephant carcasses also feed a full community of decomposers, which will move in to chow down on anything the bigger scavengers don’t get to quickly enough. They’re rearing chicks for about half the year, Virani says, so they need to find as many big meals as possible. When a large animal dies, vultures stuff their crops with as much meat as they can hold to take back to their nests. These feasts can be crucial for vultures, whose populations have plummeted as humans have changed their habitats and poisoned them. “It’s just incredible-the noise, the cacophony-they jostle and they jump and they fight and pull one another’s wings,” Virani says. Hundreds of vultures can descend on an elephant carcass at once and reduce it to a skeleton in a matter of days, says National Geographic grantee and vulture expert Munir Virani of The Peregrine Fund, who has witnessed the grim spectacle a few times in the flesh. In the case of the bull captured on video, several spotted hyenas opened the carcass to a flock of white-backed vultures, which quickly covered the elephant in a mass of tugging, flapping birds.
Vultures often spot a dead animal within minutes or hours of death, but even their strong beaks can’t tear through elephant hide, so many will circle aloft while they wait for the sharp teeth of lions or hyenas to “open” the carcass and spill the innards, says Joyce Poole, an elephant expert who codirects the conservation group ElephantVoices. Photograph by Michael Nichols, Nat Geo Image Collection Everyone has a job to do, and to some extent, they wait their turn to do it.Īn elephant in Samburu National Reserve in Kenya stands tall among her herd. But if you watch for a while, the carnage is a surprisingly orderly affair. What they got is a gory tableau, with roiling piles of vultures plunging into innards and fighting for choice scraps. After filming elephants grieving at his side, the crew decided to stick around to see what happened next. A male elephant had been gored in a fight with another male and later died of his injuries. Recently, a film crew with Safari Live, which is produced by WildEarth Media for National Geographic, captured a remarkable scene of supersize scavenging in action in South Africa. A horde of hungry animals quickly descends to reduce the carcass to bones, gulping down millions of calories in just a few days. Worn paths radiating like the spokes of a wheel often surround a dead elephant, created by other pachyderms traveling to visit the remains over the course of days, weeks, or even years.īut in a circle of life writ extra-large, the natural death of an elephant also means survival for many others, including some currently threatened and endangered species. When one of these behemoths dies, it is mourned. An African elephant can weigh up to seven tons and can live for 70 years.
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