A Decomposing Snake

Yikes! This used to be a snake. There was no rattle so it was not a rattlesnake. It might have been a gopher snake or a garter snake. Do you see the ribs and the vertebrae? Some kind of animal ate this snake. Maybe it was a coyote, a fox, or a red tailed hawk. These animals are all consumers. They feed on other animals to survive. After the bigger consumers eat parts of the snake, other things break down the snake into smaller pieces. These are called decomposers. Decomposers are fungi, insects, and, bacteria. Over time, the decomposers turn the dead snake into soil. Then plants grow in the soil. Small rodents eat the plants. The snake eats the small rodents. It’s the circle of life!

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