Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death

Life Everlasting examines how animals deal with death and the renewal of life through decomposition and scavenging. The book was inspired when a friend with a severe illness asked to have a green burial at Heinrich's hunting camp in Maine, prompting the biologist to investigate ecological and spiritual lessons found in nature's cycle of death. Heinrich explores the behaviors of creatures typically avoided, including field mouse burials conducted by carrion beetles, ravens as northern undertakers, and the coordinated scavenging of wolves, large cats, foxes, weasels, bald eagles, and nuthatches in cold-weather prey dispersal. He also examines how humans continue to play an ancient role as scavengers, transforming life through death rather than returning it to dust.