Why aren’t the woods just chock full of bones?

Question

When I was a kid, we used to explore the woods all the time. I came across a couple dead mice or birds in my time, but they were always recently deceased.

But tons of animals live and presumably die in the woods. Why aren’t the woods covered in deer and bear and raccoon skeletons? Where are all the bones going?

In: 4903

Answer 1

Mice, voles, chipmunks, porcupines and squirrels will go to town on the bones of any animal for the calcium in them. Wolves and coyotes will chew down the megafauna (deer, moose, elk) bones as well.