Rotting Elephants - Life after Death - Channel 4

Wed 16 Feb, 9PM

Are you watching this Rot?

If not you can watch it on 4OD

Ever wondered what happens to an elephant after it dies? No, this isn't a programme contemplating elephant heaven, it's an exploration into the squelchingly gruesome world of decomposition. The star of the show is a young male elephant, slowly decomposing in Tsavo West National Park, Kenya. He had to be put down by a vet after being severely wounded by poachers. Now his remains act like a giant stinking bird feeder - drawing attention from miles around and providing a bounty of fast-food for the local ecosystem. It also provides a perfect spot for a bunch of scientists, led by Simon Watt, to delve under the skin of this rich African ecosystem as a five-tonne elephant is transformed into six million calories worth of fat, meat and guts. It's enough energy to keep a human sated for over eight years, but here under the African sun, voracious vultures, hyenas, leopards and insects pick away at the corpse day and night, until just seven days later there's nothing left but a pile of polished bones.

Not to be watched after a heavy meal!

- Paul

Read more on the Channel4 Website

Killed by poachers: Simon Watt presents The Elephant: Life After Death, which shows how quickly an animal carcass is absorbed into the food chain.

The documentary shows an experiment to monitor how the remains of the largest land mammal on Earth is exploited for its six million calories.

A bird feeds on an elephant carcass reduced to bones in just a week