Deer kill question

[BoxMN]

I came across a deer kill near my cabin in Crosslake area. On state forest land, but near cabins. It is right on snowmobile a looging trail that I snowmobiled on a week ago sunday, and nobody else snowmobiled on since, so not hit by sled.

Not a lot of paw prints around it, and I don't think we have many if any wolves in the area, and the site isn't a bloody mess at all. I know a guy feeds them about half mile away, so don't think it starved. Just a fawn.

There were obvious BIG bird tracks, I think from eagles that live there year round, and that they scavenged it and ate pretty much any and all they could get.

I am just curious what might have killed it, or if it just died. There is a neighbors lab that runs off lease often, and just about 300 yards from the carcass, and it had what appeared to be a scarred/banged up head this past weekend. Maybe that ran it down... but I didn't see many dogs prints in the area, and it was right on the packed area of snowmo tracks... hmmm... just wondering if you have any ideas. I just haven't seen any deer kills/carcasses in this area in 10 years.

Thanks for thoguhts.

[BobT]

My guess is that if there's no evidence that something has been feeding off of it or an open wound, then perhaps it died from other causes like malnutrition, illness, disease, etc.

If something intentionally killed it, there should be evidence of a bleeding wound I suspect.

Bob

[BoxMN]

There has been feeding it is basically ripped apart, but no blood or red snow around it. All guts are gone, rib cage picked clean, throat torn out and eaten. My wife thought it looked like something got it by throat, as it looked almost like teeth/mouth sized chunks gone from throat.

Guts gone, but contents of guts were spread around, it was eating plenty, that's for sure. But the wierd thing for me, and I have a seen a few wolf kills and pictures of them, there is no blood around it, and not a lot of torn up snow around it. Aside from the bird tracks, which are easy to see where it landed and walked over to the carcass.

Anyway, it was just interesting to see it so close to the cabin, and right on trail, but without blood around. I don't even think rain would wash away the red, would it? The snow around it was completely white, and I know it didn't snow and it wasn't there a week ago. Thanks for ideas.

[ChuckN]

It could have just perished.

A small buck died right near my friend's place back in January...dropped dead. I found it just after it passed, and no blood. One set of tracks from the deer to the place it fell and died. It happens.

This buck was mighty aggressive during the rut as I had seen him several times during the season.

The coyotes have sure been eating off of it, and they've completely cleaned up the entire carcass so far.

[BobT]

Agreed. No kill blood could suggest it died on its own and the scavangers have been busy after the fact.

Bob

[Musky Buck]

My guess just croaked, no monkey business. I did notice like on my trailcam yesterday some deer look in way better shape than others, 1 looked really rough. He'd probably be the first out of them to perish.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I agree too, no blood around and no definite tracks leading to/away from it, just dropped dead

[Surface Tension]

With snow conditions the way they are, a crust on top the snow it can hold a dogs weight but hooves punch through, is when dogs chasing deer become a bigger problem.

Dogs don't have to catch the deer to kill it and killing it isn't his intention. The deer will die from exhaustion. When and if the dog catches up to the deer the chase is over and so is his interest. He moves on to find another deer to chase. Even if the chase does not end with the deer dieing the stress and energy spent fleeing can be enough to kill it later on. For that reason dogs can kill multiple deer in one day. Yes that friendly neighbor hood mutt left to run free is a killing machine.

So lack of blood doesn't eliminate the possibility of being chased by a dog. It just means the deer was dead when it was fed on.

[BoxMN]

Thanks for info everybody. I know there are dogs that people let run loose, and even though they are nice dogs, I can see what Frank is saying, that could so be exactly it.

I have tow dogs, and I know they want to run after deer when they see them, but I can call them back or make them stay, and they are never out unless I am as well.

It was kinda neat to see, and I am sure the eagles fed well on it, or foxes in the area. Will be neat to bring grandkids there in spring and make a big deal out of the bones maybe some "stories" are in order, ha!

edit - oh yeah, I made a pretty stink out of the neighbors dog running loose a couple weekends ago, and it now has a dog house and is chained to it, though it still gets loose. That is a whole different topic... arrrrrgh...