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Bambis revenge? Deer photographed nibbling on human bones, a first
Warning: This post includes images of human remains that might be disturbing to some readers.Bambi’s revenge? Deer photographed nibbling on human bones, a first.
By Karin Brulliard May 9 at 8:00 AM
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
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https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
Although they are herbivores, deer have been spotted eating meat and gnawing on bones before. But not these kind of bones....
We’ll get right out of the way that no horrified relatives are just now learning that their missing loved one’s fate was to be deer dinner. The body from which these bones came was placed with the highest scientific goals in mind on the floor of that forest, which is better known as the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility in San Marcos, Texas.
The 26-acre facility is one of several “body farms” around the nation where researchers plunk donated bodies out in the elements to study the process of human decay and decomposition. Usually the bodies are placed inside a cage to prevent the interference of scavengers. But sometimes they’re left unprotected to see just who might come along to snack on the carcass. Images from remote cameras have revealed that regular diners include rodents, coyotes, raccoons and foxes.
This particular body, which researchers deposited in July 2014, was initially stripped by vultures. Then, the following January, a remote camera snapped shots of a new visitor to the scene: a young white-tailed deer. It looked very dainty but for the human rib bone “extending from the side of the mouth like a cigar,” in the words of the researchers, who wrote about these first-ever images in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Eight days later at the same location, a deer — maybe the same one — was spotted casually gnawing on another rib bone, looking like one of those rare people who make it through a giant turkey leg at a Renaissance festival....
By Karin Brulliard May 9 at 8:00 AM
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
A white-tailed deer. (Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post)
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
A young Texas deer gnaws on a human rib bone in January 2015. (Meckel et. al., ‘White-tailed Deer as a Taphonomic Agent: Photographic Evidence of White-tailed Deer Gnawing on Human Bone,’ Journal of Forensic Sciences, John Wiley & Sons Inc.)
https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=
A young Texas deer gnaws on a human rib bone in January 2015. (Meckel et. al., ‘White-tailed Deer as a Taphonomic Agent: Photographic Evidence of White-tailed Deer Gnawing on Human Bone,’ Journal of Forensic Sciences, John Wiley & Sons Inc.)
Although they are herbivores, deer have been spotted eating meat and gnawing on bones before. But not these kind of bones....
We’ll get right out of the way that no horrified relatives are just now learning that their missing loved one’s fate was to be deer dinner. The body from which these bones came was placed with the highest scientific goals in mind on the floor of that forest, which is better known as the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility in San Marcos, Texas.
The 26-acre facility is one of several “body farms” around the nation where researchers plunk donated bodies out in the elements to study the process of human decay and decomposition. Usually the bodies are placed inside a cage to prevent the interference of scavengers. But sometimes they’re left unprotected to see just who might come along to snack on the carcass. Images from remote cameras have revealed that regular diners include rodents, coyotes, raccoons and foxes.
This particular body, which researchers deposited in July 2014, was initially stripped by vultures. Then, the following January, a remote camera snapped shots of a new visitor to the scene: a young white-tailed deer. It looked very dainty but for the human rib bone “extending from the side of the mouth like a cigar,” in the words of the researchers, who wrote about these first-ever images in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
Eight days later at the same location, a deer — maybe the same one — was spotted casually gnawing on another rib bone, looking like one of those rare people who make it through a giant turkey leg at a Renaissance festival....
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/05/09/bambis-revenge-deer-photographed-nibbling-on-human-bones-a-first/
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