First pics from this year's carcass pile

[WNYBuckHunter]

I went and checked my cam thats been sitting on a pile of deer parts from butchering and a couple of road kills I put there for a couple of weeks. I got a few good pics, but no fox or coyotes this year yet, just crows, some deer and a couple of hawks. This is a different spot than I had put a pile last year, and so far Im a little disappointed. I shot my only yote of the year there last year, and so far this year, not even a track down there. We will see what ends up coming around, but here are the first ones...

[Lawdwaz]

Cannibalism ?

Edited January 8, 2012 by Lawdwaz

[WNYBuckHunter]

Not sure if they are licking or eating from the carcasses, but it's not the first time I've seen deer take interest in other dead deer or gut piles. I put the cam on video mode, so maybe if the deer return I can see what they are doing better.

[Skillet]

Probably picking corn or something out of the old stomachs.

[Lawdwaz]

I've seen them chowing in a two day old gut pile before also. Crazy..........!!

[erussell]

Gut shot Zombie deer from the gun season!!!!

[WNYBuckHunter]

Gut shot Zombie deer from the gun season!!!!

I'd better brush up on my head shots!

[erussell]

I'd better brush up on my head shots!

Yeah that would suck to be chased down and devoured alive by a herd of zombie deer bent on revenge

[Geno C]

proves the theory that deer are VERY used to death in the woods and do not avoid areas where dead deer lay...

[G-Man]

probably after bones, meat, anything that will contain minerals or protine. i have watched deer pick up and eat dead fish lying on top of the ice from ice fishermen leaving small fish and dead bait. they seem to devower them with great enthusiasm.

[erussell]

There is a video on youtube of a deer eating a baby bird that was laying on the ground.

[ny hunter]

I guess if they are hungry enough they well eat anything.

[Doc]

Isn't it animal tissue that is the basic cause for the origin of some of the animal diseases such as CWD? There was some talk about how it was taxidermy waste that started the CWD in NYS.

[WNYBuckHunter]

proves the theory that deer are VERY used to death in the woods and do not avoid areas where dead deer lay...

Yep.

[Geno C]

There is a video on youtube of a deer eating a baby bird that was laying on the ground.

mr youtube at it again, here it is lol

[WNYBuckHunter]

Well, having lots of little issues this year, all my fault, not the camera. The last 2 weeks I had it in video mode. The first week, I somehow left it turned off and had no videos on the card. This past week I made sure it was on, but with the little 2Gb card, it got filled up in 2 days by crows. Pisses me off because I went over there to check the pile a couple of nights ago when there was snow, and the area was loaded with fox and yote tracks. Figured I had a bunch of good vids on there. Im glad I set it back to photo mode. Hopefully Ill get some good pics now that the critters know the pile is there.

[Fishin Magician]

I think.............it's smelling tarsel glands...............but.............just a newbie.........lol............

[Guides ForHire]

seen deer mow down entire nests of hatchlings of ground nesting birds, also we had several fawns we raised and all would try to steal steak from your plate.

[phade]

Deer will eat bones, antlers, etc. of other deer. It has calcium and phosphorus in them.

They'll also eat the corn from the gut. There are reports of cannibalism, so it does happen. It is not commonly documented, but it is there.

Doc...CWD is prion-based and is limited to the brain itself, not necessarily regular muscle/organ tissue. Transmission is more often done from saliva contact - I'm unsure why saliva transports it but the organs/muscle are not necessarily a major factor in spreading it. Funny thing about it here in NY, is that we likely will never have a definitive cause for how it got here, but CWD has been around for decades in most states - it is only now being publicized. CWD does not always show symptoms - and even at that, deer can have it for years before they up and drop dead.

[Doc]

I've got to admit that the NYS CWD experience turned out to be a whole lot different than I had been led to believe from reports out of the west. It has always been portrayed as a devastating disease that once present in the wild population, swept through the deer herd rapidly devastating the population as it went. Our experiences so far really haven't even come close to being all that devastating. Perhaps there was a bit of sensationalization and over-statement going on with some of these reports. As far as carcass piles being a potential new source of CWD, I was assuming that the heads (brains) would also be part of a carcass dump. I guess my comment was based on the report of "taxidermy remains" being the suspected culprit in our state outbreak.

[wooffer]

Interesting, I would have thought they would avoid another dead deer. Skillet may be right, that deer might be salvaging some un-digested dinner.

[hunter49]

I beleive Deer&Deer hunters did a test to see if gutting a deer by their stand would keep deer away & they showed that deer where the first animal to eat on the pile. They were surprised to see it happen at all.

[WNYBuckHunter]

Why would deer avoid dead ones? This isn't the first time I've seen deer sniffing, pawing or otherwise paying attention to their dead counterparts. This is just the first trail am pics I have gotten of it. I'm pretty sure deer don't interpret death as we do.

[Doc]

A bunch of years ago, I dragged a buck through about 10" of snow from on top the hill all the way back to my house (a little over a mile). The next day I noticed that another deer had followed the entire drag right down to the house. Its tracks never came out of the drag impression in the snow until it got about 30 yards from my back door. I can't imagine what was on its mind ...... something to eat maybe? By the way that hasn't been the only time something like that has happened, but usually they don't follow the drag that far.

[Four Season Whitetail's]

Doc it was infact remains that brought cwd into ny state. There were 5 deer behind fence that contacted it from sloppy disposal of remains from taxidermy work. The 2 deer from the wild that contacted it must have been in touch with either the deer themselves or they got in contact with remains from the deer out west theirselves. CWD Will wipe out a herd of deer fast and the last thing we need in ny is another way to wipe out more deer in some areas. Just about every state has had atleast one case ofcwd so im not really sure they have a handle of where it really comes from. I can tell you that every deer farm is checked. 10% of the herd has to be checked yearly from shooting preserves and any deer that dies for any reason on breeding or urine farms.