Like anything that has life, there’s stages to death. Like the bloating and rotting, followed by the eventual popping of the corpse as the gasses that have been building up inside bursts out. Followed by the scavengers who will pick the corpse clean.
Sometimes some selfish little fucker will just swipe the whole thing. I had a mole decomposing on my driveway all week, and suddenly Sunday morning it’s just gone! You can’t even tell it was there.
TBF I initially just left it there because I figured that whatever predator had dropped it would come back, or some scavenger would appreciate the fresh kill. It was already well into decomposition before it vanished, so I’m really curious who likes well-aged mole covered in ants.