The American Beagler Forum

[img][img]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a254/ ... 6/deer.jpg[/img]

This is a carcass of a doe I killed this weekend,I threw it out a couple hundred yards from my house saturday night and by sunday morning something covered it up with grass.What do you reckon did it?

my guess is a fox/coyote...

i'd say the deer was too big to drag off, usually they bury thier food if they don't eat it all.... guess they thought it would be easier to cover it up instead...

jack

Was thinking a coyote might cover it up. Although, I'm surprised they didn't eat it.

My guess would be cat...

a man

I'd guess a bobcat did that.
-Pete

I would figure a bobcat as well!

I'd say it was a bobcat also. A deer is too big for the bobcat to carry off, so he will eat his fill and cover it to protect it from scavengers.
A coyote could have eaten alot of the carcass because wild canids have a feature that allow their stomachs to expand to allow for massive amounts of food to be consumed. This feature enables a wild "dog" to gorge himself for lean times between meals. I believe that the coyote would have just left the "leftovers" and not bothered to cover it up. Cats on the other hand, will eat some and come back later to eat again. They can't consume large amounts at one time. Also, if you look at the WAY it's covered, you can tell that the vegetation has be piled up from AROUND the carcass. You can almost see where the creature has "scratched" all around it. Think of a cat piling up liter around his "mess" in the litter box. The nature of how they cover fits this pattern on your deer. Dogs don't cover things like that (with their front paws) they would "kick" up vegetation in "hopes" to cover it.
This meal has been carefully and thoughtfully covered. Just like a cat.

BIG- FOOT !!

If the tail or hind end was eaten then a coyote, but if it wasn't eaten at all then a bobcat. I have seen coyote cover up a kill but never to that extent.

mountain lion covers its prey..

I would say a cat of some kind. Most coyotes travel in packs and are not this neat. They would tear it up and move it around among the pack.

Briarhoppers wrote:I'd guess a bobcat did that.
-Pete

Yep, bobcat. I've seen it quite a few times.
I have gutted deer and walked by the following morning to find it covered and bobcat tracks around the gut pile.

Yep, I'll agree with jumpdog as this was the work of a BIG FOOT. If you look closely at the top right hand corner just above the carcass you can see it's foot print. It's clearly the heel and sole of a BIG FOOT's foot where it's kneeled down on one knee and gathered the vegetation to cover the carcass. I figure this one didn't want to pack the carcass all the way back and have to share it with it's pack mates so it covered the carcass with the grass to keep it from drying out in the direct sun. I figure it'll return to dine on what's left and then smoke the grass after the meal.

sorry i could'nt eat it all so i covered it up to save it for later....i hope you did'nt uncover b/c thats my dinner for the rest of this week.