Everyday Dying

It has been a few months since I have published my previous photos of dead birds in the earlier post . Over the succeeding months I encountered three interesting specimens, which I decided to share in this post. Bird 1: Spanish Seagull in Tabarca, Alicante, Spain The corpse of a seagull found on a beach of pebbles in Tabarca, Spain I have encountered this dead seagull during my holiday in Spain in late February, as I was walking along the beach with my friends. This beach was part of the Tabarca island, located very close to Alicante. The views there were amazing and it was one of the best holidays I ever had. That's why a month later I came back to Alicante, and with all that travelling and chaos at my workplace I haven't had time to write many new posts.  But going back to the theme of this post, surely, dead seagulls must be a very common sight in places close to the sea and other water reservoirs. But while most people will look at cadavers like this with...

The process of bio decomposition is essential for the maintenance of natural cycles. Decomposition begins from the moment of death, being caused by and autolysis (when the body breaks down its own tissues, usually starting with the liver due to enzymes present, and in the brain due to its high water content), later followed by putrefaction (breakdown of body tissues via bacteria). Prime decomposers are bacteria and fungi but larger organisms also play a role in the process. These range from arthropods such as beetles and flies to larger birds and mammals, such as vultures, dogs and wolves. During the first few hours following death no signs of corpse decomposition are yet visible. However, the body cools down, usually its temperature dropping by 2 degrees per hour. This is known as algor mortis. Due to gravity blood settles in those parts of the body which are closest to the ground. This is known as livor mortis and it occurs for up to 8 hours following death. Moreover, muscles stiff...