Burying Beetles Turn Carcass into Baby Food | 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 true the burying beetles
of cub they cackled 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 beatles 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
the beatles prepare their home part
coroner slab part 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 Beatles embalm the Shrew with a
protein-rich secretion that comes from
their mouths and anuses
now the shrews 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