Dead birds in the ecosystem: More than a sad sight

The Vorpommern-Rügen district, for example, currently advises to leave dead waterfowl lying where possible, because they are part of the ecological cycle and serve as food for numerous other organisms.

The same applies to many situations in Switzerland as well, where artificial bank reinforcements, intensive agriculture and recreational pressure already severely limit the adaptability of wildlife in winter.

Dead Birds as Engine for Life

From the perspective of carrion ecology, carcasses are not 'waste,' but hotspots of biodiversity: A single dead animal teems with bacteria, fungi, insect larvae, carrion beetles, scavenging birds as well as mammals like foxes or lynx. Researchers speak of true 'nutrient islands' that massively boost plant growth. In studies, for instance, curly thistles near carcasses were more than five times larger than at comparison sites, with correspondingly multiplied insect diversity. The additional vegetation in turn feeds herbivores and their predators, creating a local boost for the entire food web.

While we stand before a dead swan and see only loss, countless invisible organisms profit from this resource in the background. The hunting lobby likes to tell the story that it must 'remove' 'sick and weak' animals early to 'prevent suffering,' but factually it thereby deprives ecosystems of precisely those carcasses that serve as the basis of an astonishingly rich community of life. A comparable relationship is known from 'living deadwood': There too it becomes apparent that supposedly dead material is indispensable for thousands of species.

Natural Mortality Instead of Hunting 'Management'

In near-natural ecosystems, wildlife populations regulate themselves through natural mortality: hunger, diseases, parasites, weather and predation ensure that not all individuals survive. Harsh winters increase these losses, but long-term populations adapt by having primarily weakened or poorly adapted animals die and resources become available for the remaining ones. These are precisely the processes that recreational hunting attempts to override with its 'management' ideology, by feeding intensively, artificially maintaining high populations and simultaneously claiming that without culling, wildlife would 'perish miserably.'

Put bluntly: What nature regulates through selection and cycles is reinterpreted in the hobby as staging of 'emergency' feedings and 'animal welfare' cullings. Authorities currently point rather to the opposite: unauthorized feeding actions and 'rescue attempts' can be dangerous for both humans and birds, for instance through breaking through ice or spreading avian flu. That diseases like Avian Influenza also occur more frequently during winter periods and additionally affect weakened animals is well documented biologically and another reason why sick birds should be left in peace and not 'collected.'

Our Empathy and Its Blind Spots

The distress over dead swans in the park is real and human, it shows that we are capable of perceiving the suffering of other living beings. At the same time it reveals an imbalance: We mourn the individual visible animal while largely ignoring the often invisible consequences of our lifestyle, climate crisis, habitat loss, pesticides, power lines. The hunting lobby exploits this emotional gap by serving the image of the 'merciful' shot that supposedly protects animals from hunger or disease, and thus stages itself as a moral authority.

In fact, little evidence supports the claim that hobby hunters reduce suffering—quite the opposite: Are wounded, shot animals, hunts with hounds, and noisy driven hunts systematically ignored, despite being hardly compatible with empathy? Anyone who wants to speak honestly about compassion in winter should not start with the gun, but with consistent habitat protection, defusing technical death traps, and accepting natural mortality that creates more life in the ecosystem than it destroys.

What we could really do

Anyone who sees dead birds in winter can act meaningfully without destructively interfering with the ecosystem's cycle. Recommended: Keep distance, especially if bird flu is suspected, and don't touch dead animals; inform responsible authorities when many carcasses are found in one location. No spontaneous 'rescue actions' on ice surfaces, no feeding that unnecessarily habituates animals to humans and dangerous places. Exert political pressure for safe habitat: defusing power lines for large birds, renaturalized shoreline zones, quiet zones for water and migratory birds. And not least: question hunting 'management' narratives that stage natural mortality as drama to legitimize shootings and feeding.

Dead birds in winter are a moving image for us—for the ecosystem they are a food source, engine for new plants and insects, learning site for foxes and birds of prey. Those who understand this will have a harder time believing the romantic narrative of 'necessary' recreational hunting, and an easier time advocating for genuine wildlife protection.