Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death

Summary

From one of the finest naturalist/writers of our time, a fascinating investigation of Nature’s inspiring death-to-life cycle

When a good friend with a severe illness wrote, asking if he might have his “green burial” at Bernd Heinrich’s hunting camp in Maine, it inspired the acclaimed biologist to investigate a subject that had long fascinated him. How exactly does the animal world deal with the flip side of the life cycle? And what are the lessons, ecological to spiritual, raised by a close look at how the animal world renews itself? Heinrich focuses his wholly original gaze on the fascinating doings of creatures most of us would otherwise turn away from—field mouse burials conducted by carrion beetles; the communication strategies of ravens, “the premier northern undertakers”; and the “inadvertent teamwork” among wolves and large cats, foxes and weasels, bald eagles and nuthatches in cold-weather dispersal of prey. Heinrich reveals, too, how and where humans still play our ancient and important role as scavengers, thereby turning—not dust to dust—but life to life.

Narrator Rick Adamson is proud to have presented several titles from author Bernd Heinrich. He is an Audie Award winner for his voicing of IN A HEARTBEAT, from the authors of the true story that became the film THE BLIND SIDE.  Around NYC and his home studio in New Jersey, he has worked in commercials, corporate and medical media, as well as educational content worldwide, for more than thirty years.