Death

Rutendo and Sebastian explore death and its role in the natural
world. For Sebastian, death is a permanent state, a complete end
to a life. But for Rutendo and her family, death is just a
temporary parting. Around the world burial customs differ, but
throughout nature, death and decay provide sustenance to other
life-forms.


 


Sebastian explores the extraordinary diversity within the ground,
with soil ecologist Frank Ashwood, who explains that a single
teaspoon of healthy soil contains more than a billion organisms.
Among them, the nematode worm – the most abundant organism on the
planet.


 


Wildlife pathologist Simon Spiro performs a post-mortem on an
elderly cheetah from Whipsnade zoo, and takes us through ZSL’s
archive of specimens from nearly 120 years of animal
post-mortems. Samples such as worms from the gut of a European
bison, or stones from the stomach of a llama, are used to help
scientists learn more about the basic biology of each species.


 


Rutendo and Sebastian are joined by TikTok star Mamadou whose
animal fact videos have brought him more than 15 million
followers. Rutendo and Mamadou bond over their shared belief that
jaguars are disrespectful, and he leaves Sebastian with a
disturbing story about Pelicans.


 


Credits


The BBC Earth podcast is presented by Sebastian Echeverri and
Rutendo Shackleton.


The producers were Rachel Byrne and Geoff Marsh.


The researcher was Seb Masters


The Production Manager was Catherine Stringer and the Production
Co-ordinator was Gemma Wootton.


Podcast Theme Music was composed by Axel Kacoutié, with mixing
and additional sound design by Peregrine Andrews.


The Associate Producer is Cristen Caine and the Executive
Producer is Deborah Dudgeon.


 


Special thanks to


Simon Spiro from the Zoological Society of London.


Soil ecologist Frank Ashwood.


Jennifer Jerret from The Acoustic Atlas at Montana State
University for providing the soundscape from Yellowstone National
Park.


Mamadou Ndiaye who can be found on TikTok under @mndiaye_97


Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.