Deer Caught On Camera Gnawing Human Bones Is A First For Science
When most people think of deer, they imagine either something adorable like Bambi or something that exists mostly to destroy cars and backyard gardens. Few, though, think of a creature that would be interested in eating meat, let alone human remains. One such deer has bucked the trend, though, and was captured on camera by researchers rummaging through and otherwise gnawing on human remains in the wild, marking the first time ever such an observation has been made.
White-tailed deer, the variety most commonly encountered through the United States, are known for their relaxed nature-friendly diet: they commonly eat berries, acorns, wild carrots, and other plant matter. It isn't unusual to observe a deer gnawing on a bone, however, and so that wasn't a surprise when researchers captured a deer gnawing on a particular bone. What did surprise them, though, was the source of the bone: it came from human skeletal remains.
According to the researchers, this is likely the first ever instance in which a deer was captured in a photo gnawing on a human bone. Until now, no one had ever observed deer mucking around with human remains. The reason for gnawing on bones, researchers believe, is to add necessary minerals that deer don't otherwise get from their plant-based diet.
The deer in this case didn't randomly happen upon a body that happened to be near a camera. Rather, forensic researchers placed a corpse in the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility in San Marcos, Texas, with the goal of observing what kind of effects various scavenging creatures have on human remains. There are certain expected scavengers that would disrupt the remains, such as scavenger birds, rodents, and larger animals like coyotes.
The human remains were allowed to remain in the park for a long duration, and it was on two separate occasions that a small deer was captured on camera gnawing on its bones. The first instance happened on January 5, 2015, and the second instance happened several days later on January 13. It is not possible to determine whether it was the same deer, though they look the same in the photos. You can check out the deer-cam photos yourself via the journal link below, but be warned that they do contain images of the skeletal remains.
SOURCE: Journal of Forensic Sciences