This dance of death is another aspect of the beauty of this mountain.
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This is no macabre feast, this is the infinite bounty of nature cycling and recycling.
Here all is in balance, there is a respect and reverence in the way the ants dismember this once living creature.
Soon the life force of the grasshopper will be passed on to the ants and from the ants to the birds, then to the foxes, and finally the vultures before they too pass into the keeping of the ants once more.
This is the web of life in action, abundant, effortless and the ultimate expression of a wild democracy where all are truly equal.
Photo: Wood ants on the mountain. Courtesy of the author.