With over 40 million views, this incredible National Geographic footage of an elephant carcass dismantling gives us an up-close tutorial on how nature recycles – everything! It’s not an easy thing to do, and it’s incredibly sad, but nature has turned a tragic situation into a survival story for many other species. Be warned, the content is a bit gory in places, probably not what you want to watch while you’re having dinner!
At the beginning of the shot, we see a dying African elephant. Judging from the shape of the ears, this is very similar to the African forest elephant. It is slightly smaller than the African savannah elephant, and its ears are more oval, which have both hearing and cooling functions.
Adult male African forest elephants can be up to 3 meters tall with tusks up to 1.5 meters long. Sadly, it looks like one of these tusks did the damage. When we first see the bull elephant in this video, it looks like he got into a fight with a bigger, older elephant and has suffered a very serious abdominal injury. Too bad some of its intestines were hanging out from the wound, and the poor elephant was visibly weak and leaning against a tree.
The video cuts to the next day, the elephant is dead, and others are performing a “mourning ceremony” where they back up to the carcass, touch it with their feet and mount it. It’s a very touching movie and a very touching scene. At this point we learned that this relatively young (35 years old) and small bull elephant was probably killed by an older, larger bull elephant who became very aggressive. This is a natural state where male elephants become extremely aggressive as their testosterone levels increase to six times their normal level. This makes them restless and unpredictable for two or three months.
As the elephants left the scene, scavengers entered and began recovering the carcasses. It starts with hyenas, whose teeth are sharp enough to tear away tough skin to reveal the flesh inside. When hyenas leave, their places are taken by white-backed vultures, which feed on the naked flesh. Vultures rely on hyenas to open their skins because their beaks are not strong enough to do this.
In fascinating time-lapse footage, we watch the carcasses slowly disappear as the decomposing elephants feed on many different species (including bacteria). In a short time, this gigantic body becomes an ecological habitat within a larger environment, and it is comforting to know that one death can sustain so many lives.
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I am broadly interested in how human activities influence the ability of wildlife to persist in the modified environments that we create.
Specifically, my research investigates how the configuration and composition of landscapes influence the movement and population dynamics of forest birds. Both natural and human-derived fragmenting of habitat can influence where birds settle, how they access the resources they need to survive and reproduce, and these factors in turn affect population demographics. Most recently, I have been studying the ability of individuals to move through and utilize forested areas which have been modified through timber harvest as they seek out resources for the breeding and postfledging phases. As well I am working in collaboration with Parks Canada scientists to examine in the influence of high density moose populations on forest bird communities in Gros Morne National Park. Many of my projects are conducted in collaboration or consultation with representatives of industry and government agencies, seeking to improve the management and sustainability of natural resource extraction.
