It really depends on which type of animals reside there (i.e., bears, wolves, coyotes, foxes, wild dog packs, vultures, etc), how many of these animals are in the area, how much food they have available, if they have their homes nearby, if the body is exposed to sunlight, the type of weather there, the composition of the ground (i.e., acidic soil like in a peat bog, dry sand, mangrove roots, prairie, rock, etc). I worked as a Park Ranger for about 5 years, and one day I received a call on my personal cell phone from my Captain, asking me to meet him in this one area of the woods next to a road. I knew some serious incident had occurred, since he could have easily contacted me on my radio (though the dispatcher would have heard our conversation) and clearly wanted to keep things confidential. I arrived on-scene to discover a new Mercedes that had gone off the road and crashed head-on into an old, massive oak tree; it struck so hard and stopped so quickly that the entire engine block was ripped out by this force - thrown right through the hood, landing around 10' in front of the car. We estimated that the accident occurred around 3am - my Captain found the wreck at 7am; he had heard a large number of coyotes howling and crying, and went to investigate. The single male occupant of the vehicle clearly died immediately upon impact with the tree - the coyotes were in a frenzy because they were eating the victim (they were pulling what little was left of his insides all over the car, and they were fighting each other for them). The Coroner arrived to recover mainly just a skull and bones... I have no doubt that if the bones had been left there they would have been carried off by the coyotes very quickly...
