I hike around the rural area where I live and a couple of years ago found a fresh elk cow carcass. Over the next few weeks I saw it most days and watched it gradually dissolve into a small scattering of large bones. My own dog helped with that.<p>The next spring that spot was noticeably greener than the surroundings. It probably helped a few more coyotes survive. I don't doubt that the corpse benefited the environment, but what an unholy stench and horror show in the meantime. It's hard to imagine people tolerating that process within smelling distance.
I guess I am confused a little. Are park rangers or maintainers actually going through "wild" areas and removing the carcasses? Why? I am not sure I would even think of such an area as "wild" then. Heck, I'm not sure how you would even keep up with doing that.
Scavengers and other organisms that "close the loop" on the circle of life are very important: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_vulture_crisis</a><p>>The sudden collapse of the natural animal disposal system in India has had multiple consequences. The carcasses formerly eaten by vultures rot in village fields leading to contaminated drinking water. The disappearance of vultures has allowed other species such as rat and feral dog populations to grow. These newly abundant scavengers are not as efficient as vultures. A vulture's metabolism is a true “dead-end” for pathogens, but dogs and rats become carriers of the pathogens.
Maybe a compromise could be reached by simply burying the animals rather than removing them fully. That way the nutrients would stay in the local ecosystem, but there wouldn't be any "unsightly dead carcasses".