Is this normal for coyotes?

[TheMrs]

We moved to our property in December so are still getting used to life out here. DH and I are wondering if we have a coyote problem or if this is just normal and we're overreacting. Yesterday around 3:00 DH and I walked around our property collecting blackberries...we noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Today DH took the kids out around 7:00 after supper. While they were out they found two deer carcasses in the same spot where DH and I collected blackberries the day before, so we knew that they were freshly killed. The deer were lying side by side and all that was left of them were bones...even the skulls were picked clean of skin and flesh. I know that we have coyotes out here, but is it really realistic for a pack to take down two deer at the same time and pick them entirely clean in a day?

This isn't the first time we've found a dead deer on the property in the six months we've lived here. It's fairly common for us to find dead deer and turkey on the property. So, obviously something is eating very well. Could it be something else besides coyotes? We're in Southeastern Missouri.

Thanks for your input!

[chamoisee]

What makes you think coyotes killed them? Coyotes typically dismember the carcass over time. I suspect that it could just as easily been disease, winter kill, being shot by inept hunters and dying elsewhere, poisoning, or any of the other things that can kill deer. Crows, ravens, etc are wonderfully adept at removing flesh from a carcass but leaving the bones in place.

[Old Vet]

It would take a lot of coyotes to eat a deer but two at one time is not common at all explicitly laying them side by side. Coyotes usually don't have the strength to move a deer carcass and killing them both is not what they would do but can happen. If you have that many coyotes you should start to realty think about getting them trapped or killed before they turn on you when you go out at night. I have had coyotes turn on me at night and if I hadn't had a gun with me they could have hurt me bad. Coyotes would have eaten some of the bones.

[JuliaAnn]

Can you tell if they were eaten where they lay? If they were, there would probably be a lot of blood, etc on the ground underneath the carcasses. For example, field dressing a deer leaves a good bit of wetness on the ground underneath from blood and other fluids. If not, I would suspect they were killed/eaten elsewhere and dragged there by something.

[naturelover]

That isn't normal for coyotes, or any other predator either for that matter. Even if they were killed 4 or 5 days ago there should have still been some flesh and hair on the bones, and it takes about a week or more for birds and insects to completely pick bones clean. Coyotes and other meat eaters would have pulled the bones apart, they would not leave them intact and lying side by side. It sounds like a dump off by humans.

If you're positive you couldn't have missed them when you went berry picking yesterday then maybe they were dumped there overnight by poachers who killed them somewhere else previously. Are there trails leading from there off your property to other properties? Have you asked any of your neighbours if they've had trouble with poachers or coyotes or with finding dead animals on their properties?

I agree with Old Vet that if there's a lot of coyotes then you need to do something to keep them away. They will get bold if you don't and may easily attack you, and will definitely prey on your pets and livestock.

.

[chamoisee]

If they are totally skeletonized, not only could it not have happened overnight short of a massive number of crows and dermestid beetles, but it would be hard to dump them and leave them intact.

My guess is that there are very two similar blackberry patches fairly close together.

[MELOC]

hunters normally don't dump anything but hides, skulls and the rib part of the carcass. the last deer i encountered that had been eaten by coyotes was scattered over a 20 yard area with part of leg and hide twisted and such.

this is a bit of a mystery. i concur with the theory that you missed them the first time. if they were laid neatly side by side, maybe some hunters or poachers laid them there with the intention of picking them up later and then got cold feet. nothing i know of picks a carcass clean in a day.

[coup]

i saw a pic once of a deer left out a night by a hunter and the yotes had eaten everything but the head.........

[fordson major]

coyotes can strip a deer in a night!! often all i get to look at when processing a claim on sheep is a stripped carcass and a bit of wool!! !!

[gilberte]

Aliens

[fishhead]

It sounds like they were dumped by someone. Not necessarily someone who shot them since it's not deer season.

Any deer that gets killed by a car near my house gets hauled away so my dog doesn't go near the road. I stay away from dumping them near houses but other people may not.

[Batt]

Poachers.

You have wild blackberries already??

[gunseller]

Without picts it is very hard to tell what happened. In SE Missouri you are looking at an ave. weight of tops of 25 pounds for a coyote. If a yote eats 50% of his body weight in one night and the deer's live weight is 150 pounds. How many yotes does it take to eat two deer over night? To be honest you would be looking at 25 plus coyotes and that is not going to happen. If it were yotes there would be hair all over, the grass would be flat, there would be piles of poop all over, you would smell yote pee as well as lots of blood on the grass. I am thinking one of three thingd happened: you missed them the day before, it happens, someone dumped the deer remains for whatever reason or bigfoot did it. Picts would really help.
Steve

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Adron

Poachers.

You have wild blackberries already??

I don't buy the poacher theory. Poachers wouldn't have bothered skinning out the head unless it was a trophy animal, and too early for that.

[Cascade Failure]

Side by side?

I vote poachers followed by nature.

I wish my blackberries were ripe.

[Wolf mom]

Originally Posted by TheMrs

We moved to our property in December so are still getting used to life out here.

While they were out they found two deer carcasses in the same spot where DH and I collected blackberries the day before, so we knew that they were freshly killed. The deer were lying side by side and all that was left of them were bones...even the skulls were picked clean of skin and flesh.

I think you all just didn't see them the day before. Fresh kill bones look a lot different than old bones. Maybe blueberry picking distracted you. If it was a fresh kill, the ground would have been disturbed, you'd have seen insects, etc. The bones wouldn't have been "picked clean" overnight.

Lying side by side? Unusual for animals to stretch out 2 killed animals like that & keep them intact when feeding. They fight over bones, etc.

I think they're old bones; that you didn't notice them the day before. And that it's poachers. Plus, if it's a coyote "pack" you'd have heard them if you live nearby.

[bergere]

Could be poachers, I have to deal with those a lot. They are year round around here.
OR a Cougar with young. Cougar can and do drag their food to their favorite spot.
A carcass around here will be totally clean to bone in less than 24 hours, seen it often enough.

Can you check for tracks around the carcasses, say for either foot print or predators? That could give you an idea what caused the issue.

[tinknal]

Any chance of a photo?

[bluefish]

It may not be common, but it's most certainly possible.. I've seen it. We used to have coyotes that would come right up to the house. One evening I watched them take down a doe and she was nothing but bones by the next morning. I kept the dogs in because the coyotes were still around. You'd see them come up just to gnaw on the carcass a bit. By evening, it was 300 yards from where they took it down.

[TheMrs]

Ok, I have to retract just about everything I posted. Apparently DH's depiction of the events were a bit less than accurate. I went out this morning to look at everything with my own two eyes and what I saw was a lot less dramatic than what DH saw.

There are skeletons of two deer within a close proximity of one another...I'd guess about 15 feet apart? They are not lying side by side and are not in an area that would've drawn our attention while we were out picking blackberries, so who knows how long they've been out there. The bones were scattered about somewhat. I did take same pictures even though they don't show a whole lot.

Here's a photo of one of the remains and DH is standing next to the other skeleton.


Here's the remains of one deer


And here's the second


Sorry for all the hullabaloo.