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 25 dogs, snares and flies DHJanzen100479.jpg high resolution
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| Selection for speed of capture of a carcass by the scavenging fly community has been taken to its extreme in this forest. While exploring the rainforest outside of camp, I encountered this camp dog, exausted, attempting to make its way home across the forest floor. On its left front ankle was a tightly closed snare loop, the broken end of which was bent into a large fishhook. With every step, it caught on the litter, slowing the dog to a standstill. She was dying of thirst - ironically the rainforest floor has no standing water to speak of. Down the black hair of her back are hundreds of thousands of fly eggs and larvae, packed in there by flies ovipositing and larvapositing as she walks. The left upper foreleg is a solid mass of eggs and larvae. This is pending decomposition. | ||
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