My dad called me right after dark on New Year's Eve to say he thought he ended the year right by shooting a doe with his recurve just a few minutes before. He thought he had a good hit, had found good blood, but decided to recover the deer the next morning. He was hunting a couple hundred yards from his house on our farm in south-central Missouri.
The next morning he called me bright and early and started the conversation with, "Well, son, I've got one for the story books". He started tracking his deer at first light and found a good blood trail right away. After about 20 yards up the south ridge by the house, he found his arrow and the blood really started pouring then. At 60 yards, he found where the doe had lain down but the blood trail then turned back downhill towards our road. He had his beagle, Sweety, with him to help with the recovery effort.
While he diligently followed the blood, Sweety went on ahead and suddenly Dad heard her start barking treed down towards a ditch that runs between the road and the barn. Dad's first thought was that the deer was still alive so he snuck down towards where Sweety was at to have a look see.
When he got to the ditch, he peered into it but saw nothing. Sweety was still barking and wouldn't go into the ditch and Dad was beginning to think the dog had lost her mind. That's when he saw the first sign of his deer; just a white patch of ear hair sticking out of the grass and leaves.
Here's a closeup
Not knowing at the time what the "white stuff" was, he climbed down into the ditch and made this discovery; what was left of his doe drug under a log and completely covered in grass and leaves.
That was when he decided to go back to the house and call me. After our conversation, he went back to the deer and took the pictures.
Here you can see where one whole shoulder is gone
Here you can see where one ham is gone too. The ham on the other side was partially eaten.
Now we both had suspicions about what kind of animal would do such a thing but they were confirmed after some research. According to what we had learned, only two predators in north america will bury their kill to save it for later. One is a grizzly bear and the other is a mountain lion. And since the former is pretty scarce this far east, we had to conclude it was the latter.
Now I know you fellers out west see this kind of thing on a regular basis. However, here in the Ozarks, losing a deer to something a little higher on the food chain will give a man a reason to pause before he steps outside.
Oh, yeah...this carcass was buried less than 100 yards from Dad's front porch.
Darren Haverstick
Topic: Deer Taken Away By Mountain Lion In Southern Missouri (Read 1671 times)
