Hard Sci-Fi book where the protagonist astronaut lands on a planet and interacts with the population by wearing a costume to make him look like the locals. Spoilers.

[Luke]

I read this book in 2022 or 2023, but it was an old book about to get weeded from our local public library, so I'm guessing it was at least 10 years old at that point.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

The astronaut who wore the suit to make him look like the local population befriends some of the locals. They end up planting their leaders, like you might plant a garden. Then, at a certain point, another nearby astral body -- moon or another small planet -- gets close enough that these creatures fly over from the other close planet and just tear the local population apart, eating them. It horrifies the astronaut, but then he realizes that it's just their natural situation. They plant their leaders, so they can regrow after the culling, back into a new society.

I thought it was in a Ben Bova book, but I can't find anything like that in any summaries, so I'm not sure at all. Maybe it was in a collection of his short stories? I don't know.

Thanks, if anyone can help me with this.