Slim Pickings

When, in January, Bill told us about a dead deer he’d found in their woods I just couldn’t resist putting a camera trap on a tree near the body. The deer was a doe that had made a mistake crossing the road nearby and been struck by a vehicle. The injury hadn’t been immediately fatal and she had gotten into the woods and part way up a short steep hill before she died.

Although the deer’s carcass had been opened before the camera trap went up, not much had been eaten and most of the internal organs and all of the muscle tissue remained. Activity at the deer’s carcass was featured in two posts: here and here.

By the time the last video in the second post was taken there wasn’t much left of the carcass. But just because there wasn’t much left on which to feast, the visitors didn’t stop coming – some to eat and some just by chance –

The many, many videos of gray squirrels have been omitted from this video. My apologies to anyone who would like to view 50-100 videos of squirrels – maybe some other time.

The eastern coyote pair probably has a den nearby and pups to feed so the bones and whatever edibles are on them may now be at the den – wherever that may be. It’s worth finding, but the pups might well be moved as soon as the adults realized someone had been nearby.

Now only a mass of hair and the lower part of a foreleg remain to indicate that a white-tailed deer died on this hillside.