The partially mummified body of a man has provided an unusual home for a motley crew of woodland creatures. Scientists discovered wasps, honeybees and even a squirrel nesting inside the corpse.

Researchers said the world-first discovery illustrates the unbridled resourcefulness of wildlife—that such creatures exploit even the most unlikely spaces to thrive. First discovered in 2016, researchers reported their findings last month in the journal Forensic Science International.

"No one before us had the opportunity to describe a case of nesting of these species of animals inside a human corpse found in a tree," said study author Marcin Kadej from the Institute of Environmental Biology, University of Wroclaw, Poland, in a statement. "[The discovery] brings a new perspective and gives us new information on the behavior, ecology and biology of these animals."

The body was found hanging some 80 feet from the ground in a forest in south-western Poland. The team thinks the corpse had remained undiscovered for about 13 years. The creatures were found when the body was transferred to Wroclaw Medical University's Forensic Medicine Department.

A lack of scavengers, the position of the body and atmospheric conditions high above the ground all impacted its decay, researchers said. The man was wearing two pairs of pants, which also protected his body from weather and helped keep it bound together.

Full story here.

Speaking of squirrels we’ve got a body hanging out of a tree in Poland, wearing two pairs of pants and full of wasps and squirrels. Awesome. We’ve got other science guys going nuts over this shit, but not ours. Our science guy sees right through this shit. Bodies are not for bees. Just because you can live some place, doesn’t mean you should. This has swung me on cremation. For a while I thought burial would have been a nice thing, but with this new information I can no longer feeling comfortable putting a big “For Rent” sign on my carcass and letting a bunch of shitty little insects move in. What’s your super power? Flying? Teleportation? Doing all the fortnite dances with full effects on demand? Mine is to spontaneously combust when I die. It’s a got a one time use, but it’s a good investment nonetheless. 

This would be the scariest thing imaginable to find: oh you think a body is frightening? This guy’s got a bee hive where he should have an appendix! Think that’s scary? Look at this fuckin’ squirrel! This is like fucking true detective of the animal world. Why the fuck is this guy wearing two pairs of pants? Why is he forty fucking feet in the air in a polish tree? These are the questions that are important to answer. I defer to my science guy but while biomes and atmospheric conditions impacting decay are interesting, I’d much rather know what turned this double pants wearing dude from a person into a bee-home.

P.S. This would be an insane disney movie premise, no? You’d have a bunch of animals all coexisting in what you later found out was a human corpse. It’d be like a mix of Bugs Life and The Thing.