A friend wounded a deer and was unable to find it until the next day. When he found it the shoulders had been eaten and it had been covered up with debris. Strange to me that the guts were intact and uneaten. Coyotes? Bobcat? This is in central South Carolina so we don't have a lot to choose from. Any ideas?

A coyote is out of the question. They usually also work their way in from the ass end, not shoulders, etc. I've seen them clear inside a dead cow carcass and come running out when you drive up. Bobcat I don't know about. Mountain lions will sometimes cover it up in a haphazard fashion.

Thanks Jay. I was very surprised at the fact that whatever the critter, he left the guts alone. For most predators that's the candy.

Sounds like a bear to me. They and Lions are the only ones I know of that cover the kill or carrion.

[ 10-28-2003, 15:39: Message edited by: amosgreg ]

Bears

This is a trait of cougars....and they're more widespread than most folks think.

Thanks for the replies. A cat came to my mind also, but we're not supposed to have lions or bears where I hunt. Do you think a large Bobcat might have done it? And what about not going for the entrails first? Is that a characteristic of some animals? Somebody out there knows all about this. Let's hear from you. Thanks

Sounds like a bear, foxes, coons or town dogs, since the shoulders were eaten, a coyote might eat the shoulders if the skin was ripped, if the foxes and coons had been eaten on it before he got there, thats what I'd guess, a Bobcat could have come by eaten and covered it up. ....

Another probability is the deer was shot through the shoulders and the night animals fed on the wound...

A Mt. Lion will first eat the contents of the stomach then work on the flank meat and hindquarters, never the shoulders, then will cover and piss on the kill.....you can smell that...Also the neck would be broken at the head and if you check you will see some claw indentions on the jaw area....A Lion jumps on the back, burries the teeth in the neck and snaps the neck with his paw...A Bobcat grabs the lower part of the neck and tries for the jugular but usually ends up smothering the deer to death...

Thanks Ray. I have not seen the deer, but was told that the shot was low on the neck below the neckbone. The deer ran about 25 yards and died in planted pines.I will further investigate and report back.

Don't rule out birds. Crows, magpies and in my neck of the woods, Canada Jays can all create havoc with a dead animal. Crows and Magpies will shit and kick dirt/debris all over the carcass. The eyeballs will usually be pecked out and they will go for the wound site quickly.

If the carcass was really buried then birds were not the culprit and as the others have stated, suspicion would fall on lions or bears but not coyotes.

I know almost nothing about predator habits, but I'm going to guess bear.

I've seen a picture of a man partially eaten by a grizzly. His abdomen and soft nearby tissues appeared untouched. The legs were intact from the knees down. The thigh meat was missing down to the bone. That bear was not a chittlins aficionado. He was after ham only.

H. C.

Henry,

you just killed me with that chittlin comment ROTFLOL

I found it. Out of a sense of good taste, I will not do the img (picture url) /img thing. Not all of you will want to see this. If you don't want to see it, do NOT click here:

seriously revolting bear attack photo

H. C.

Here are pictures of the bear that did it. According to the email I got this in (FW: FW: FW:... from I don't know who originally), the fellow in the picture was deer hunting and was charged. He killed it with a semiautomatic 7mm Magnum caliber rifle, and he had to reload and shoot it in the head some more after the bear was down. I think the email says this guy works for the Alaska DNR I don't know his name. Maybe it's Ted:

That looks like a large bear. Was there info on it's size? I believe I would have preferred something a mite larger than my 7mm. And you were kind to post the photo of the victim the way you did. Thanks, Russ

here's an interesting anecdote related to me by my PH regarding the subject and leopards. In SE Zimbabwe, most of the Leopard's traditional enemies, i.e., lion, hyena were wiped out due to cattle ranching. Like always the elusive leopard thrived. Accordingly, in that part of Africa, leopards never carry their kills up a tree. The drag them into bushes and sometimes even cover them. With the re-introduction of lion and hyena to the conservancy, leopards are going to have to "re-learn" that behavior. jorge

Bobcats often cover deer carcases,I don't about
bears.

WOLVERINES WILL cover up game they can't finish off at one meal and so too a badger to a lesser extent. Don't want the scent or game so easily detectable to other predators that might take it from them.

Also Mafia hit men are pretty good at burying some of their "game" just ask Jimmy Hoffa, if you can find him.

That story about the bear is bullshit.

The bear that was shot by 'Ted' wasn't a man killer. It was in Alaska and 'Ted' is a member of the USAF.

Second that (the 'bullshit' comment). The pic indicated is of one of two US Airmen that killed that bear on an island (Hitchenbrook (sp), if memory serves). There was no charge, there were no humans eaten. Never ceases to amaze me how stories get so twisted and bastardized...

Leighton

This story has been twisted up!

If you go to a web sit called Snopes.com or another one is Urban Legends they seem to find out the truth pretty quick.

HenryC470,
I happened to see copies of those photos at a gun store today and the size they quoted for the bear was equally full of BS. It said the weight was 1600 lbs, the height to the head was 14 feet and if the bear was standing a 6 foot man would be looking into his navel (if they have one). I remember seeing the photos of the guy holding the paw about a year ago on this site and one other. Someone did indeed get eaten as evident by the 2nd photo but it had nothing to do with that bear.

I did the reccommended search on Urban Legends and you are correct. The bear story is exaggerated but a large bear was killed and there are pictures. The dead guy's picture was added to the story and no one seems to know the origin or what ate him. The article is pasted below:

The Giant Grizzly Bear

Part 5: Analysis




This email tale, circulating constantly in one form or another since November 2001, seems to grow taller year by year. Ironically, the first two snapshots � the ones showing the hunter posing next to the carcass of an incredibly large bear � are authentic. We know where and when they were taken, and by whom. The origin of the third photo purporting to show the remains of the behemoth's last victim is unknown. It was attached to the already-circulating email by an anonymous prankster in late 2002.

In real life, the big grizzly measured 10' 6" from nose to tail and weighed in at an estimated 1,000 to 1,200 pounds � unusually large for the vicinity, says the USDA Forest Service, but not quite a world record, nor even an Alaskan record. It was killed on October 14, 2001 by U.S. Air Force Airman Theodore Winnen on Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound. The photos were taken by his hunting partner, Staff Sgt. James Urban. Both were stationed at the nearby Eielson Air Force Base at the time.

Though the bear was within 10 yards of the hunters' position and moving towards them when he fired the first shot, Winnen says, it did not charge them, contrary to what the email claims. "I don't know if the wind was in our favor or what," he told the Anchorage Daily News. "We were dressed in camouflage. He might not have seen us." Winnen's weapon was a 338-caliber Winchester Magnum, not a 7mm semi-automatic as alleged. The first bullet pierced the bear's brain but left it standing; five more in the chest finally brought it down.

Was the bear a man-eater, as claimed in the email? No, says the Forest Service, there is no evidence of that. When asked by the Anchorage Daily News to comment on the horrific image of what appears to be a partially-eaten human victim, spokesman Ray Massey admitted he hadn't even looked at it. "I didn't want to see a photo of the body," he said. "I know it's bogus."

I have a little trouble with "the shot to the brain that left it still standing"

Anyway, there it is. Russ

Back to the deer. I trapped a lot of carcasses (cattle, deer, sheep, etc.) for fur and as a damage control trapper. Almost without fail, a carcass like you describe was being gnawed on by a dog and possums (in your area). Possums eat on the meat also. Most wild predators go straight to the guts through the rectum. Predigested grasses and internal organs are more "tasty" and nutritious for them. Had you trapped the carcass you would have probably caught some possums, a crow, and the neighbors' dogs. Dogs will cover the carcass.

When my little brother was stationed in Charleston, SC, he said the women who ran the mess hall cooked opossum for them one time. (Is it bigoted to interject at this point that they were black women? It was part of the original story anyway.) Someone asked the women how they caught the opossums. One of them said they went out to the field around dark with broomsticks. There was a dead cow out there, and they went up to the cow and started beating it with the broomsticks. Opossums poured out of the mouth and ass ends of the dead cow, and they beat the opossums with the broomsticks to kill them.

H. C.

[ 11-08-2003, 17:03: Message edited by: HenryC470 ]

Henry,
That's an old story but it has merit. Once the carcass is open the possums take over. I've eaten a few of them and don't need to repeat the experience.
J