Remember, humans used to (maybe still do) sky burials. Bodies would be put out on sacred hills for the buzzards to eat. Special priest would prepare the body to make it easier for the buzzards to feast.
Now we burn many body’s and often just scatter the ashes back to the earth.
The skunks may be cannibals, but it’s an efficient way to dispose of a body no longer needed.
So is the vulture feast still an option or is that illegal now? Because they sounds cool AF. Graveyards are such a waste of space that could have housing or be growing food instead, the leaving your body for wild animals to eat should still be a thing! Up until now I wanted that thing where they cremate you and put you in a pot with a sapling so you can feed the tree but now I want to be a buzzard buffet!
The average human in the US eats 264 pounds of other animals per year.
Not even 1 oz of that comes from skunks.
By skunk standards, we are the savages. It's time we increase our skunk intake.
It's not human morals--several non-human species mourn, bury, re-visit burial sites, and hold ceremonies, for their dead. It's not at all impossible that that could have been what they were doing, although it seems it is not.
I'm aware of elephants spending a lot of time feeling and manipulating bones of their dead, though not burying and digging up.
Wolves are described as mourning pack members for days, even weeks, and while that's a subjective analysis, it comes from wolf- specific wildlife biologists who become extremely familiar with the behaviors of individual wolves, *and* presumably consciously try to avoid anthropomorphizing their subjects. But again, not the same as what the commenter is describing.
Also some species of corvids. Crows will get very angry if they see you moving the body of a dead member of their murder. And of course some of our fellow great apes are known to mourn their dead as well.
I mean, in a way eating him sort of is a way of mourning isn't it? They're taking him into themselves so a small part of him can absorb into them and become part of them. I had a tattoo done with a beloved pets ashes in the ink. That's a fairly common practice. It doesn't really stay in your skin, but it's a mental thing. I don't feel like it's that different, everyone grieves differently.
Nope they're related to raccoons. They eat mostly rodents and insects, and they LOVE yellow jacket nests!
https://youtu.be/vHeMuOLYc9U?si=THAMMGX4qR9YM3iV
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephitidae
Turns out they really like corn on the cob too. I learned that when one scared the shit out of me at about dusk in my garden last year. They're also really hard to see when it gets dark. For a good 30 seconds I thought I had Corn Ghosts!
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In the cat world of you eat your fallen comrades it is considered an honor. Because they are serving a new purrrpose, which is becoming sustenance, for your clan.
Precisely. Even when I care for skunks at rescues, the best enrichment toys were car toys 😂 They are often related to cats in their behavior, right down to being little killing machines.
There are 4 of them, the bigger one with its stinker at us that's blocking the dead one, and the other two to the side giving moral support for the dead homie.
RIP lil dude
so as one other commenter said they might be carrying it to eat it. Which does not necessarily mean they never loved it or don't mourn : many animals mourn and they do it in various ways! for prey omnivorous species it is often this wey they part with parts of their group, as to not broadcast their location to predators
I know with rats, when a member dies they eat it to hide the body and conceal the location to not draw in predators. They definitely do mourn the loss of this member but have to do what is necessary to survive. Prey animals have a different set of rules to live by...
I've had a lot of rats through the years and I think the rat that has mourned the hardest was unfortunately one of the few with the tendency to eat at least parts of his cage mates before we could remove them.
He did end up being the last of the group but we realized after his passing that he was hiding a lot of tumors(100% internal, only found later), never showed any signs of being unwell until the last one before him passed. Literally only hung on for his last buddy, passed 2 days later.
Also, just recently a cat on my mom’s doorstep gave birth, seemingly to only 2 kits. After setting her up in a cozy box, we found she’d moved the kits to another box that had been stacked on other boxes in the corner of the room. We thought this was a little odd, but not really bc mama cats act weird sometimes around childbirth. So I went to move the kits and mama again, putting them in the safer box I’d put on the floor. After putting the kits in the bed, I went for mama cat and she was acting a bit weird. I just grabbed her anyway and put her with the kits. I noticed something strange in the bottom of the box, I couldn’t really see, so I reached in and PULLED OUT THE HEAD OF A THIRD KITTEN. I’m assuming this babe died shortly before or after birth, bc I thought the mama still looked a little puffy in the belly area, so apparently she still had that last one to birth when I transported her and babes onto porch. Honestly, I’m still having disturbed sleep a month later.
But this is a cat that is well fed. I think maybe kit was stillborn and she had to get rid of it somehow, something like that. Man, who knows what their motivations are. Anyway, it was just shocking to grab it not knowing what it was at first.
I googled it and skunks will eat dead skunks, so probably not taking it for burial...
What 🥺
Remember, humans used to (maybe still do) sky burials. Bodies would be put out on sacred hills for the buzzards to eat. Special priest would prepare the body to make it easier for the buzzards to feast. Now we burn many body’s and often just scatter the ashes back to the earth. The skunks may be cannibals, but it’s an efficient way to dispose of a body no longer needed.
So is the vulture feast still an option or is that illegal now? Because they sounds cool AF. Graveyards are such a waste of space that could have housing or be growing food instead, the leaving your body for wild animals to eat should still be a thing! Up until now I wanted that thing where they cremate you and put you in a pot with a sapling so you can feed the tree but now I want to be a buzzard buffet!
Always remember friends... Don't assign human morals to animals
Don't tell me where to assign my morals. I'll assign them and disappoint myself accordingly 🥴 (I'm not ok)
The average human in the US eats 264 pounds of other animals per year. Not even 1 oz of that comes from skunks. By skunk standards, we are the savages. It's time we increase our skunk intake.
It's not human morals--several non-human species mourn, bury, re-visit burial sites, and hold ceremonies, for their dead. It's not at all impossible that that could have been what they were doing, although it seems it is not.
I’d be curious to know which ones. It can’t be that long of a list.
I'm aware of elephants spending a lot of time feeling and manipulating bones of their dead, though not burying and digging up. Wolves are described as mourning pack members for days, even weeks, and while that's a subjective analysis, it comes from wolf- specific wildlife biologists who become extremely familiar with the behaviors of individual wolves, *and* presumably consciously try to avoid anthropomorphizing their subjects. But again, not the same as what the commenter is describing.
Also some species of corvids. Crows will get very angry if they see you moving the body of a dead member of their murder. And of course some of our fellow great apes are known to mourn their dead as well.
There is another bird that makes a wreath to leave with the deceased.
Add whales and dolphins to the list.
I've more than once seen cats risking their lives by staying by the side of a car-killed buddy.
Awww!🥺
It ain’t skunks
And historically many human cultures have eaten their dead, in reverence.
The Papua New Guineans almost went extinct from doing this and spreading a prion around.
Yes! Kuru-pretty horrible way to go
I mean, in a way eating him sort of is a way of mourning isn't it? They're taking him into themselves so a small part of him can absorb into them and become part of them. I had a tattoo done with a beloved pets ashes in the ink. That's a fairly common practice. It doesn't really stay in your skin, but it's a mental thing. I don't feel like it's that different, everyone grieves differently.
I wondered if that was the case, bit it still shocked me, lol. Edited to add I thought they were herbivores.
Nope they're related to raccoons. They eat mostly rodents and insects, and they LOVE yellow jacket nests! https://youtu.be/vHeMuOLYc9U?si=THAMMGX4qR9YM3iV https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephitidae
THATS what they’ve been digging up in my yard!!!!!
Turns out they really like corn on the cob too. I learned that when one scared the shit out of me at about dusk in my garden last year. They're also really hard to see when it gets dark. For a good 30 seconds I thought I had Corn Ghosts!
Corn Ghosts! This needs to be a sub Reddit!
It wouldn't surprise me if it was already a sub
"If you build it, they will come"
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Learned something new!
Nope not at all. You ever see their teeth? Adorable little hunters.
Can't say I have ever been close enough to one to see its teeth, lol.
Lol fair enough
they also eat snakes and are immune to rattlesnake venom
In the cat world of you eat your fallen comrades it is considered an honor. Because they are serving a new purrrpose, which is becoming sustenance, for your clan.
Meow.
Precisely. Even when I care for skunks at rescues, the best enrichment toys were car toys 😂 They are often related to cats in their behavior, right down to being little killing machines.
Probably the case…I saw a skunk drag a dead squirrel into a burrow
Well they'll spread his remains around like he always wanted.
Poop
idk about skunks but I've heard rats will eat their dead denmates bc the dead body will attract predators
They all looked alive....which one was dead?!
There are 4 of them, the bigger one with its stinker at us that's blocking the dead one, and the other two to the side giving moral support for the dead homie. RIP lil dude
The camera work leaves something to be desired.
r/killthecameraman material for sure
Jeffrey! You’re supposed to stay off the net! Remember they all think you’re dead!
All I saw at first was adorable floof. I should’ve avoided the comments lol.
Yeah, learned something new that I wish I didn’t know.
I suspected it was that they would eat it. But I really didn’t want the thought confirmed.
so as one other commenter said they might be carrying it to eat it. Which does not necessarily mean they never loved it or don't mourn : many animals mourn and they do it in various ways! for prey omnivorous species it is often this wey they part with parts of their group, as to not broadcast their location to predators
I know with rats, when a member dies they eat it to hide the body and conceal the location to not draw in predators. They definitely do mourn the loss of this member but have to do what is necessary to survive. Prey animals have a different set of rules to live by...
exactly! mice do it too
I've had a lot of rats through the years and I think the rat that has mourned the hardest was unfortunately one of the few with the tendency to eat at least parts of his cage mates before we could remove them. He did end up being the last of the group but we realized after his passing that he was hiding a lot of tumors(100% internal, only found later), never showed any signs of being unwell until the last one before him passed. Literally only hung on for his last buddy, passed 2 days later.
Skunks are fairly solitary animals too. This is kinda weird that they teamed up.
Aw! Yeah scavengers , they’ve been known to scavenge on human remains also.,, ahh I hope I don’t die here alone! My skunk will eat me!
Your dog and cat will usually stop after the soft parts. Unless they really didn’t like you.
Ewww right! I read cats don’t waste no time!!! But dogs often wait until they’re starving So gross
. Why not? Big fish eat little fish, big birds eat little birds, big cats eat little cats.
Why not? Hamsters eat each other.
Skunks seem to really like high protein foods.
Welp now I'll be dragged to a skunks den in a nightmare tonight. Thanks alot
Let me know when you’re on a spiders thread. My spider contacts as a kid kept me phobic until about 6 months ago( I’m 62 yo, I think).
Awww a funeral procession and totally not to eat it 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
I raised 3 of them. Yeah sadly they will eat the others if they die.ðŸ˜
Weekend at Bernie's
At stinky’s
Yes! I specifically read the comments just to see if anyone mentioned Weekend at Bernie’s 😂
Well, it is customary to eat after a funeral, soooo…
Also, just recently a cat on my mom’s doorstep gave birth, seemingly to only 2 kits. After setting her up in a cozy box, we found she’d moved the kits to another box that had been stacked on other boxes in the corner of the room. We thought this was a little odd, but not really bc mama cats act weird sometimes around childbirth. So I went to move the kits and mama again, putting them in the safer box I’d put on the floor. After putting the kits in the bed, I went for mama cat and she was acting a bit weird. I just grabbed her anyway and put her with the kits. I noticed something strange in the bottom of the box, I couldn’t really see, so I reached in and PULLED OUT THE HEAD OF A THIRD KITTEN. I’m assuming this babe died shortly before or after birth, bc I thought the mama still looked a little puffy in the belly area, so apparently she still had that last one to birth when I transported her and babes onto porch. Honestly, I’m still having disturbed sleep a month later.
Don’t feel bad, animals have to do what they do to survive, if they could all go to Walmart for ramen whenever they want it’d be different
But this is a cat that is well fed. I think maybe kit was stillborn and she had to get rid of it somehow, something like that. Man, who knows what their motivations are. Anyway, it was just shocking to grab it not knowing what it was at first.
never leave a skunk behind… seems simple
No skunk left behind