Burying Beetles | National Geographic

the life of a North American garden
shrew is run around like crazy for about
a year and then fall over dead like this
poor fella
this shrew is no more it rests in peace
or does it is this a death rattle or is
the shrew actually you know coming back
to life nope this is still an ex shrew
the burying beetles have come they
cackle over their latest fine this shrew
will be food and well something out of
the second Alien movie that you’ll see
before competing scavengers can join
this deadly feast other beetles maggots
raccoons etc the burying beetles have to
move the cadaver to a more favorable
location in order to secure their prize
the beetles conduct their own funeral
procession they lie on their backs and
walk the shrew forward as the procession
moves on even a gate won’t stop these
grim reapers from hauling their cargo
like a landlocked funeral barge the dead
shrew approaches its final resting place
in the burying beetle burrow
[Music]
the beetles prepare their home part
coroner slab heart morticians parlor for
a daunting home-improvement project to
turn this carcass into a nursery the
body is given a shave and then no gross
the beetles embalm the Shrew with a
protein-rich secretion that comes from
their mouths and anuses
now the shrew is ready for that thing we
mentioned earlier from that alien movie
the female will lay her eggs near the
decomposing shrew which the mom beetle
will chew and regurgitate for them the
rotting carcass is baby food
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