Very Strange sight!!!

[ohgreatstew]

Walking my dog today I came across a very sad & strange sight, the picture below is rather disturbing, this was in a wood on the South Downs, perhaps not so strange that a young dear has been killed, but how and what has eaten half of it, in such a tidy way, it seems like the head half appears untouched but the back half is clean, I don't even know what type dear this is..... any ideas or clues would be interesting.


Stew

[Lance Morgan]

this looks like a roe deer fawn - It has been predated by a carnivor of some sort most likely a dog possibly poachers coursing - the guts (abdomen) have been largely removed as easy pickings by foxes etc leaving the thorax ribs etc. The carcase has been dragged or dropped and various other scavengers have had a nibble.
Sad to see

[sunnydale]

Hmmm, a very sad end indeed. The pain it must have suffered doesn't bear thinking about, especially if it was attacked by hunting dogs

[Muggsy]

I'd say badgers have consumed it, I have a similar photo but of a fox

[richnfamous]

My experience is that badgers will drag a carcass around, break it up and make a big mess. They would probably have had a go at the forequarters too.

[Wild-Woman]

I'd say a roe deer. Interesting to see that some of the rib cage seems to have been consumed. If this was Africa- I'd suggest hyenas!!!!

[Muggsy]

Originally Posted by Wild-Woman

I'd say a roe deer. Interesting to see that some of the rib cage seems to have been consumed. If this was Africa- I'd suggest hyenas!!!!

funny you should mention hyena's .. a similar thought went through my mind when I found this last year, or big cat
I'm sure/almost certain it was badgers though.
I know how it died too, and it didn't involve dogs.

[posie]

How did it die Muggsy, can you tell us?

[ohgreatstew]

Thanks for your comments, interesting, I would suspect perhaps a dog or gun killed this deer, there are quite a few empty cartridges round the general area so I know someone uses them, although despite wawlking this wood every day I very rarely hear a gun shot, as to what has consumed it since is still up for debate, although Hyenas are my favorite idea so far.......

[fairplay]

It wouldn't make sense for poachers to go after a young deer unless they were very inexperienced poachers as there wouldn't be a lot of meat.
Experienced poachers would disembowel it, chop the head and lower limbs off, and take the carcass away.

It is possible (if shot) that they missed the neck/head and hit the body instead, enabling the deer to run to safety where it died a lingering death.

Kids with an air rifle could also be responsible for the initial wound, which would then make it vulnerable to predators.

But my hunch would be a loose dog/s not under control. So many dog owners let their dogs run riot once in a wood where they think no-one can see, as long as the dog gets it's exercise, that's all they care about and if the dog frightens a deer and chases it, the owner will simply say 'well I didn't know' or 'it slipped the lead'.

Three times I have come across muntjac deer with their head trapped in sheep fencing with a dog or dogs ripping away at it's backside. In each case it was the tell-tell screaming of the deer that made me run to see what was causing the distress.

Normally, a deer would be able to jump such a fence or walk a different route, but when spooked by uncontrolled dogs the deer will panic and becomes oblivious to a fence. (And NEVER attempt to release a trapped muntjac from the same side of the fence, they have small, but very sharp tusks, and a few years ago now, a man rescuing a deer nearly died through a huge loss of blood when the freed muntjac showed it's thanks by gouging it's rescuer in the inside thigh, cutting the artery).
So be the other side of the fence when freeing a deer.

So in this case, I would say dogs chased the deer, wounded it, were called back by the owner, left to die of it's injuries, and became eaten by whatever was around.
The easily accessible bits were eaten first, but within a few more days the limbs would have been taken away (strong sinew keeping limbs intact so far) where the carnivore could eat the other bits in safety.

Neil.