Hiking through a remote area of my local marshland park yesterday, I came upon the skull of a dead deer with some impressive-looking antlers. I don’t know much about deer, but the antlers are enough to tell me that it was a buck and, if I understand the counting system right, it was a six-point buck (three on each side). Initially I saw only the skull, but when I investigated the marsh grass in the surrounding area, I saw some of the larger bones of the deer.
The White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in the park don’t have many natural predators, so I can’t help but wonder what caused this buck’s demise. There are coyotes in the park, so I guess that is a possibility. At certain times of the year, archers also shoot deer and I have been told that police sharpshooters sometimes hunt deer at night, but my understanding is that they try to recover the bodies and turn the meat over to homeless shelters. Whatever the case, the animals and birds of the park had picked the bones clean.
I took these shots primarily to record my find, not to make any kind of artistic statement. I used a couple of elements in the area where I found the skull to prop it up so that I could photograph some of the details of this once beautiful animal.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved
Mike Powell 
Very imaginative!
This photograph takes my breath away. Ethically it’s distressing… emotionally — the deer’s distress is still ‘audible’. Finally, this is a great post!
Another example of the circle of life. I suppose if you came back at night and used some strategic lighting that you could make quite an interesting shot of that last one.
Neat, the skull is in good shape, perhaps a recent demise.
That’s my thinking too, Sue. I suspect that the bugs would be busy if the weather were warmer.
Obviously, they have to die sometime. Since their only predator around here is cars, I guess many if not most die of old age. Maybe their teeth fall out and they can no longer chew; who knows? We had a 3-legged doe around here. She survived at least one winter and had a fawn the following summer. But I haven’t seen her for a couple of years now, so I presume her to be dead. I think they mostly die in hidden parts of the woods where we don’t happen upon their remains.
Good find, buddy! The park is overpopulated with deer; many of them die of starvation.
Thanks. I was afraid that was the case, but I never really thought that I would come upon the remains of one. It seems that the vultures and other critters were well fed, even if this deer might have been malnourished. This more winter probably has been tough on a whole range of species (and more bad weather is coming).
It looks like that was a good size buck. I don’t find many skeletons at all and I sometimes wonder where animals go to die naturally.
That’s a mystery to me too. I suspect that those that die naturally do so in the most remote, hidden locations and that the decomposition takes place quickly. I was intrigued recently when reading about people collecting shed antlers and when I first saw these antlers, I didn’t realize they were still attached to the skull.
nice! and what a perfect title!
Thanks. I didn’t want to get too cute with the title, given that it was a dead animal, but I can’t resist a pun or a play on words.
Wow! Love the title and the pic! Cat
[…] many of my wildlife photos. (I documented the earlier sighting in a posting that I titled “The Buck Was Stopped Here.”) This time, the skeleton was relatively intact and I was surprised to see that it was […]