A Really Weird Find

[BDR]

Ok TBHers Maxlab and I were down at the ranch filling protein and corn feeders and we came across a very odd scene. We have this old plastic trough that we used to water the deer in that hasn't been filled in years. We could smell something dead over in the area so we went to investigate and this is what we found. A dead doe in the trough with a dead quite large bobcat ten yards from the trough. The cats head was crushed like to the point his eyes were bulging. Check out the pics and tell me what y'all think. The ground was all tore up around the cat like there was a fight.

[bowhuntertex]

The bobcat Could of been killed by a mountain lion while trying to protect it's kill

[Miki]

If the head was crushed I would guess cows or horse. They will stomp them

[Bloodrunner06]

Was there bite marks on the doe neck?

[tsu1998]

Very weird!

[sleepymedic1]

Probably a black panther.

[jrfan]

yuck!!! that is a weird find for sure.

[stagkiller101]

You got any donkeys or mules or horses? Ive seen our donkey demolish a 200 pound sow.

[rcjunky007]

The bobcat interrupted bigfoot's dinner.


Seriously, was there any big cat tracks in the immediate area?

[NF HUNTER]

I'd have to say it was a very large cat that did that!

[Txbownut]

Awfully strange. Mountain lion is my fist thought, but Bloodrunner is on to something with the bite marks on the neck. We had a lion killed on our place three years ago in Frio county. We would dump our deer and hog carcasses in the same spot year after year, and would go back the next day and they would be gone, drug off. We just assumed coyotes, but there were a couple of guys who claimed to see a cat almost every year. I always accused them of drinking more than they were hunting, but they proved me wrong when one of them shot 125 lb Tom the first week of December over a watering hole. Back to the story at hand though......how the heck did that doe get stuck in that trough? She may have sick (EHD?) and was looking for water and that's where she died. Crazy.......

[brunner]

But if either the bobcat or a mountain lion had killed the doe, wouldn't she be a little more mauled than that?

[TUCO]

It looks like it could be some kind of poisoning.

The tore up ground could be where the cat was spinning in circles after he had been poisoned; just like a rat after he eats poison.

Perhaps the head trauma was after the fact.

Cats are picky eaters. I can’t imagine a big cat, or a bobcat making a kill then opening up the paunch first; much less leaving the carcass basically untouched after the kill.

And the chances of a bobcat knowingly walking up on a lions kill with the big cat still there; then the lion actually catches the bobcat seems more than a little unlikely.

An if the roles were reversed; a bobcat would more than likely give up his kill rather than risk confrontation with a big cat.

I have watched big tom bobcats being back down off a carcass by a big boar coon on multiple occasions.

They don't want any trouble......

[Landrover]

Why is a doe in the barrel? Seems very odd to me.

[quarterback]

I'll bet they killed each other. Then something else started eating on the doe after she died. They can stomp a mudhole in just about anything if they are desperate enough.