While in a ground setup along the edge of a cornfield overlooking a bean field, waiting for the deer to show up Monday evening; something growled at me. I don’t mean like a little doggie groan; I mean a seriously deep growl, coming from corn rows behind me, judging by the sound just a few rows back.
I held my position while keeping a cautious eye out for the growler; probably needless to say no deer showed up that evening.
The Tuesday morning I went back to look for some sign in the corn field to try and figure out what the heck it was; found nothing.
On Wednesday morning I shot this doe. The shot did not feel right, so I decided to wait a couple of hours just in case. No hurry I thought the temp was coolish so the meat would be okay. However, a lot of the meat was not there. The shot was good so I could have recovered this deer earlier and sure wish I would have.
What could have eaten this deer in a little less than 3 hours during the day?
What could possibly have eaten a half a deer in 3 hours? None of the bones had teeth marks, as you can see the top side of deer’s hide is gone, lots of meat was removed cleanly from the skeleton. The top half of the hide along the backbone looked as if it has been cut off and I could not locate it anywhere in the area.
A lone coyote could not eat this much meat. A group of them would have fought and left the vegetation ripped up, plus they would have made a lot of noise, I was about 200 yards away and heard nothing. A bear or wolf would have left teeth marks on the bones; right?
A neighboring farmer claims his son has trail cam pics of a cougar. I have not seen them but have no reason not to believe it.
I am wondering if the growl and this deer have any connection.
brucehill says
that is cool!!!