Two dead bucks in just over a week

[stinkbelly]

I have something going on at my place. It isn't very big, 22 acres surrounded by 120 acres on one side and houses on the other. I have been here for 24 years and only found one dead deer and it was from a deer fight caught on camera. I found one young buck dead in one of my horse pens last Tuesday and I found another young buck dead 200 yards away yesterday in another pen. No other animals were in these pens when it happened. I also have 4 donkeys in pens around these pens. The deer come into these pens when the coyotes come around. It is very hard to tell what is killing them because coyotes and buzzards beat me to them. I looked over the remains of both of them and they don't have any visible broken bones. The one yesterday had the back legs shaved down to skin, a foot long cut along his spine, and lots of scratches and one puncture mark under the neck. I don't know how much of this was after the death. The fences are good, but not perfect. A predator can get in if it tries hard.

I put up a camera and a couple traps around the fresh kill. Unfortunately the rain last night screwed up the traps. We have been hearing something screaming in the woods for the past month. It sounds like a fox, but much louder and more violent. It sounds like something is getting slaughtered. Don't know if this is related or not. The odd part of this is that the coyotes have been gone for a couple months. I trap and they have not been around like normal. They aren't just getting smart, they aren't on camera either.


My first thought is predators. Is it possible there is some disease in the area (Parker County)? There are plenty of deer around and they always look healthy.

Thoughts? Big Foot, Chupacabra, neighborhood idiots putting poison out?

[Huntergirl723]

Big cat. Location?

[Texas Grown]

Hey G! Big cats have been seen and one was hit by a truck by a highschool student a few years ago. There have been several sightings in Parker County.

[Hills of Texas]

Ehd?

[Smart]

Deer are born looking for a place to die. Our landowners out west find dead deer all the time looking for sheds. No explanations, no coyotes up until the last two years, no big cats, no widespread diseases with an obviously healthy herd... **** just happpens... Deer die

[Tony Pic]

Ehd?

They usually die in or by water with EHD. I'm thinking big cat.

[stinkbelly]

Both of the deer were about 10 feet inside the pen. There is water troughs in all pens.

I will try to set out more camera today. We have expensive horses and registered goats. I don't need a predator.

[RMW]

Ehd?

Wrong time of year for EHD

[stinkbelly]

I just heard the noise. It sounds like the noise that the zombies make in Walking Dead.

[Texas Grown]

Zombie deer?😳

Sorry G. I couldn't help it. 😁

Hopefully you will get trailcam pics of it soon. Is it also possible for some teenage boys from the subdivision to have shot them over the fence?

[PYBUCK]

Cougars sound kind of like a woman screaming.

[stinkbelly]

The hole they dug Tuesday night to get into the pen was huge. It was 18" deep and about 18" wide. I had traps and a camera on that hole. It filled in with rain Wednesday night They made a second hole into the pen on Wednesday night down the fence where I didn't have a camera. It was much smaller. It was only a foot deep and 18" wide. I assume they made it into the pen because the deer was moved. I was shocked to find the second hole because it was coming from the donkey pen. Those guys are supposed to kill anything that comes in there.

I looked for tracks in the mud, but only saw thousands of buzzard tracks.

[Killer]

Sounds like yotes

[Sasqy]

Def not a cat !
Cats not gonna dig, they’ll jump the pens.
Yotes, or neighbors dogs.

[elhefe]

I’ve seen neighborhood dogs that have cut loose on some deer and my bet is in that.