Cougar Attack ????

[BobR]

 Is there another explanation for the scars on this small doe?  To me it appears this doe had a very close encounter with a small cougar or a bobcat.

[testar77]

I must say that the quality on those pics is VERY impressive!  What kind of camera are you using?

[saylean]

something got to her...the ear looks more healed than the others...perhaps a different wound? Great pics.

[Huntbear]

If she is close to farmland, I would also suspect barbed wire.  Other than that, predator of some kind.

[gkowen]

Does Mike Tyson live in the area?  Great pics!

[Alan K]

Does Mike Tyson live in the area?  Great pics!

LOL

Good idea setting that camera up on the creek, I like having nice scenery in the pics too.

[jackelope]

i'm wondering if its a health or bug issue more than a predator issue.

  just a thought.

[BobR]

This set is 60 yards from a friend's house and five miles from our house. They had a 13 year old black lab almost killed by a cougar in late April. A cougar has been seen twice recently.  I went to investigate before committing one of my cameras. I found fresh cougar tracks in the mud near the creek where I made this set.   This is ranch country. I have seen lots of wounds caused by barbed wire.  There are no leg wounds on this deer. I can't remember seeing an animal that got tangled up in wire and came away with no leg wounds. The wounds on this deer were caused by a small cat in my opinion. I have trail cam pics of two dead deer that looked just like this one. I set up cameras to see what killed the deer. One was killed by a large bobcat and the other was killed by a small cougar. I will see if I can find some of those pictures later.
Bob

[boneaddict]

Normal wear and tear with the change over coming in hair is my opinion.  Ear can be from anything from another doe to wire.  hair is jsut them starting to change.  And maybe a blackberry patch or something exciting like that.  Ever walk through the woods all day and come home without a scratch?

[BK Dave]

I vote for a skin/fur disease as well...maybe molting??
I would think if a cougar got ahold of that little doe, she would be a goner?? my

[Kain]

Is it possible she was hit by a car?  Those big scratches on her back just dont look like cougar claws to me. 

[BobR]

  I guess there is no way to know what happened to this deer, but I don't think it is hair change. In six years of operating trailcams, I have never seen this. I am getting lots of deer pics daily, and none of the others look like this. I have watched my dogs heal up from an encounter with a bobcat several times, and this is exactly what they looked like. I have been trying to locate pictures of a yearling deer that was killed by a bobcat in February '08. My neighbor found that deer laying by the road just 150 yards from our house. He stopped by to tell me about it to see if I would set up a camera watching it. When I went out to to look at the deer, I was not sure what had killed it. I had never seen anything like what I saw that day. It was obvious that the deer suffered long and died a slow death. I have seen fresh cougar kills, and one of those was a cow elk. But none of those were anything like what I saw that morning. I have never seen so many wounds on one animal.It looked like someone had tied a rope around its neck while it was still alive and drug it for miles on a rocky road behind a truck. I drug it off of the road 20 yards and set up a camera watching it. I posted pictures of the deer and the set on our homebrew trailcam forum. There were many suggestions and theories about what had killed that deer. Most thought it was a pack of coyotes. No one including myself even considered that o bobcat could have done this. But that is exactly what came back and fed on the deer for about a week. That cat stills hangs out around here, and I have about 7,000 trailcam pics of it now. I am sure it is the same cat that nailed my dogs three times now. I have posted  pictures of that on here several times. I remembered my computer was down at the time, and those pics are on my wife's computer. I will try to get them.
Bob

[BobR]

  The first three pictures is how I found the deer that morning. I had not touched it yet.





  I drug the deer up off of the road about 20 yards and set up my camera. I could see the deer and the camera from our house. That night just after  dark, I saw the camera flash fire. I watched the camera take at least 100 pics and I knew I would know what had killed that deer the next morning.
Saturday, I got home from work early, so I rode my 4-wheeler over to check the camera. When I got over to the place on the road just 20 yards from the camera, I saw the bobcat was laying at the deer watching me. I turned around and went back to the house to get a camera. When I got back over there, the cat was still laying there watching me. This happened again a few days later.

[River]

Sorry about thhe deer, but really the cats have to live also.  I always look for the cats as secondary targets in season and would really like to get one this year.

[Elkpiss]

I vote hair loss on that doe, its just that time of the year.. They dam near all look mangy and scared up right now.. its just that time of the year.. the ear who knows, but i dout its a cougar attack or that little doe would be buzzard bait!!