When i was leaving the frog pond, i looked up against the bank and there in a brush pile is a dead deer. Went over to it and it was covered with flies, some egg cases on it and just starting to stink. Probably been dead since yesterday in this hot weather.

It was a little male, starting to get buttons. Looked like one i just got picture of with game cam a couple days ago. I didn't have gloves so i put an old rag on over its leg and pulled it out of the brush and turned it over. It wasn't shot and there wasn't any blood on it. It looked normal, lean but not starving skinny. Don't know why a young deer like that would just die.

This is the game cam pic of what i think is the same deer.

[IMG][url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=277052&c=500&z=1"] [/url][/IMG]

Plinker

This is a morbid thought. But i'm thinking a lot of different animals would be attracted to a dead deer. Could go back and hang the game camera to point at the dead deer and see if any coyotes, etc., come by. Stay tuned....


Plinker

That's not a morbid thought in my book ... just the natural way of things.

Was surprised at how quickly this animal decomposed in the hot weather. After 4 or 5 days the eyeballs were gone and the hide slipping.
[IMG][url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=278786&c=500&z=1"] [/url][/IMG]

There was also a couple possums.

This is first time i've managed to get any predator pictures. So, anyone else with trail cams, something dead makes good bait and an opportunity.

If i had trapping skills, i'd have set some traps around it. Although, i'd only want to kill the coyote, not the fox.

Plinker

Wow, Plinker, I'm in awe of your game cam pictures! What sort of camera do you have?

Thanks Pecos45. It is a Leaf River DC1 model.

Those pictures are after "instant fix" treatment in Photo Deluxe, and it helped lighten them. The Leaf River is pretty good, but resolution and trigger time not the best. If you decide to get one, look into the Cuddleback. It has trigger time of 0.63 compared to Leaf River's 6.13.

If you like my pictures, you'd love getting your own. Especially with all the different wild animals you'd have in NM. Give it a try.

Plinker

If you are feeding whole corn, I would have it checked for aflatoxin. I think that the max allowable is 25 ppb. Too much will cause liver damage.

quote:

Originally posted by dick broussard:
If you are feeding whole corn, I would have it checked for aflatoxin. I think that the max allowable is 25 ppb. Too much will cause liver damage.

Thanks Dick, i never heard tell of aflatoxin. Did some reading on it; sounds bad. Called County Extension Agent. He said it's unlikely to be aflatoxin poisioning since there's only one dead deer. He named a bunch of other ailments that can kill off deer. But he said in the event there would be several dead deer turn up, to call DNR and they would probably come out and do a test on the brain tissue.

Whew.....you had me worried i poisioned it....


Plinker

Yesterday the site was finally visited by two turkey buzzards. Mostly possum pictures at night now. Will probably move the camera tomorrow. I'd sure never want to eat a possum.

Plinker

Sorry for rise in blood pressure Plinker. I run a farm store and have talked to several game ranchers that spent 50-60k on a DNAed white tail buck for breeding and then bitch about my $4.75 a bag corn. It took several years to get them to understand the feeding needs of the deer. Please keep me informed on anything that you turn up on his death.

Plinker, thanks for the camera report. I've talked this up with my boss and I think we're going to put one out at his ranch. Several areas where mysterious things happen at night. Be great fun to find out what.

Some think he's got a mtn lion out there. I doubt that but still lots of other likely possibilities. For sure a trail cam could be a blast.

It is common for a deer or any other ungulate suffering from a high fever to go into water and die. Normally that is the first thing you should look for. There are several common deer diseases that cause high fevers.

465H&H

I've got two game cams and it is really fun to open the picture package and see what has shown up. Last time I developed film, I had a cardinal, a bob white, a scaled quail, a curve-billed thrasher, a spike, and a bunch of does. I will check the digital cam next trip to the ranch and see what it has recorded. I have it back in the 200 ac sanctuary we don't hunt nor go into except on rare occasions, so might be interesting.

First time I put out the film cam a couple of years ago, I was sitting in a blind watching a young buck walking down the road towards the cam. As soon as he came abreast of the cam, he saw it, swapped ends, and departed just as the flash went off. All I got was a blur. Did catch a trespasser once though. Two guys in a truck no one recognized. Unfortunately, neither the license nor their faces were discernible.