A week ago I was roaming through an area rattling bucks to photograph and came across some fresh activity where something had been drug through a little opening. A short search revealed a small buck that been killed, fed on, then stashed in some thick Manzanita brush.
I decided to flag a trail downwind so I could approach the kill at daylight. The next morning I came in as quiet as I could, but no movement was seen in the brush. Closer inspection found that the deer was gone. So I slowly followed the drag marks and found this shoulder blade where he stopped to feed for awhile...
[In the same area I found two lion pies about 10 feet apart. Stuck my size 11.5 in there for comparison.
Another 200 ft and I found the carcass again. Even though the temp was 24* and frost everywhere, the dirt that was disturbed where the lion had dragged the deer had no frost in it. Pretty sure I bumped the cat off the deer. No doubt the lion is watching me investigate it's kill!
Probably should have wired it up to the tree just to the left so he couldn't drag it away if he came back. I can see the deer from 150 ft, about three times what I could where it was stashed when I found it the day before.
The next morning I sneak in again, and as I ease around some brush ready to shoot....the deer is GONE! I looked around and found one clear footprint of the lion, it's pad was 4.5 inches across, so I was certain he was a big tom.
The lion had pee'd on everything in the area, so it was quite smelly there. I followed the logical direction of travel, but no more drag marks were found, so I think he'd eaten enough that he just picked the deer up in his jaws and packed it.
A couple hundred yards away I found a piece of the backbone with a couple gnawed on ribs attached. Never did find the head again, must have stashed it in the brush?
There's lots of deer in the area, and many more to come, so I'm pretty sure the cat won't leave the area. Might get a little snow late this week for some tracking conditions. Need to remove this beast from the food chain this winter!
Please no pics wider than 640