Unexplained Deer Kill in Saline Valley Conservation Area
Last October in the Saline Valley Conservation Area, while scouting for a new area to hunt, this hunter spotted a deer head stuck between a walnut tree about 30 feet up. The conservation was contacted and he was granted permission to retrieve the remains.
Now, the big question is, how did it get there?
The hunter is stumped. And he's looking for some opinions and ideas about how this could have happened.
Anon in Texas,
ReplyDeleteI think you'd have to seriously consider the thought that you may have a cougar in the area. It's the simplest, most logical answer.
CG
Best way to clean a deers skull is to hang it in a tree for a year or so. I heard it was suppose to be a cedar, maybe this guy forgot that part. Second. More likely than Sasquatch or a Lion. Any cliffs in the area, could that buck have simply ran off a cliff and landed in a tree. I heard stories of the Indians hunting buffalo like this. I live not far from
DeleteSaline, we have lots of bobcats around and maybe a mountain lion possibly. I wouldnt be surprise about a bear. Defiantly no Sasquatch. To you Sasquatch believers I got some property for sale to you..
Did he have any video looking at the neck to see if it was cut or ripped off ?
ReplyDeleteIf this id real and it sounds like these guys are sincere it could only be 2 things and more likely it is Squatch related.
Again, sounds like another case of mis-identification due to Chinese lanterns.
Delete"The hunter is stumped". Are you serious?? There is NOTHING in nature that does this other than a lion. Period. No Sasquatch drags a kill 30 feet up a tree. Be real.
ReplyDeleteThis is 3rd time something like this has been found that I know of.
DeleteDon't think a Sasquatch can't climb trees because they do. They have been seen in trees and one was watched climbing a tree by several witnesses.
Really? I'm pretty sure leopards do this all the time. I have never heard of a african lion dragging a kill into a tree, not to say that they dont do it because I don't know. Big cats in general are known to bring prey into trees to protect it from other predators. I also wouldnt doubt that a bigfoot could drag a deer into a tree, nor do I doubt it would.
DeleteIt's fairly obvious that it's parachute didn't open....
ReplyDeleteWrong, when I was growing up I remember we were constantly plagued by bigfoots putting deer heads in trees. It's why I have that lisp now.
Delete@anonymous - You mean leopards. And we don't have leopards roaming the US. Except for a couple of rumored sightings down on the Mexican border.
ReplyDeleteWe do however have mountain lions, but they don't drag their prey up into trees. Google it, you'll find that's true.
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DeleteManbearpig did it that's the obvious answer
ReplyDeleteJust because cougars don't typically drag prey into a tree, that doesn't mean it can't happen. There could be many reasons a particular cat decides to do it. It's absolutely ridiculous to say just because I can "Google" it and see that cougars don't do this, that it can't ever happen and it's obviously a Bigfoot.
ReplyDeleteI don't imagine bigfoot would climb a tree to store his food. Where is the Saline Valley?
ReplyDeleteIt's just a head. It appears that it was flung up there rather than dragged up by a climber. Who has the strength and inclination to fling a deer head 30 feet in the air? Not a hunter. Not a cougar. Maybe a hoaxer.
ReplyDeleteThank you, anon. It was just the head people... Calm down. Anybody could kill a deer and put its' head in a tree. Why would a bigfoot do that? Grow up.
DeleteHey, stop using logic and reason on these people. Now, on with the show!!
DeleteIt's a deer head in a tree.It's not obvious that one particular animal put it there.
ReplyDeleteThe video doesn't show if the flesh is torn or cut,so it's up for speculation.
It would've been nice if more follow up was done.
Clearly the work of D.B. Cooper.
ReplyDeleteYou sound alot like The Shadow315...and I love AutumnForest, you can't have her.
Deletecouger...
ReplyDeleteFuck google. Mountain Lions DO drag kills up into trees. My dogs and I just found a deer carcass about 10 ft up in a pine tree here in Central Colorado a couple weeks ago. Dragging a carcass up a tree is normal and common behavior for lions.
ReplyDeleteAnd ThinkerWhatever... I meant LION. Not Leopard. People that live where Mountain Lions live call them LIONS for short.
You mean coloradans call them lions. Here we call them Catamounts or cougars
DeleteMe and my brother found a strange thing like this about 4 years ago in Northern Wisconsin while deer hunting. It was a small deer, most likely a fawn or yearling. We called the DNR and they sent out a Game Warden that took pictures and climbed up there and brought it down. He said judging by the marks on its neck and body a few yards away from the tree it was most likely depredation caused by a Mountain Lion. He could NOT explain why it would bring the head of its kill up in the tree. Not satisfied with the answers from the Warden, I decided to contact a Wildlife Biologist at the University at Wisconsin Madison. I was told that although it is rare, sometimes lions will drag some of their kill into trees if other scavengers are nearby or at the kill site. I still don't know to this day what really happened though, it seems very far fetched that a mountain lion would be able to detach a head from a deer and subsequently carry it up into a tree like a dog with chew toy. Never know though, wild animals do wild things, especially predators.
ReplyDeleteA 200 lb Mountain Lion can easily drag a deer carcass up a tree or high up in the rocks above treeline on a mountain. No problem at all.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyone on this thread that is disagreeing with you? Also, most mountain lions don't weigh 200 pounds. 150 would be at the top end of what they would weigh in the United States. But anyways I agree with you, I think it was a mountain lion.
Delete"Males typically weigh 53 to 100 kilograms (115 to 220 pounds), averaging 62 kg (137 lb)."
DeleteSource: Nowell, K. and Jackson, P (2006) (PDF). Wild Cats. Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan.. IUCN/SSC Cat Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland. Retrieved July 27, 2007.
Dear idiot,
Delete"most mountain lions don't weigh 200 lbs." If it weighed 199 would it still be able to easily drag a deer into a tree? Fucking idiot.
Try to keep it civil Anonymous 10:18:00 PM PST, I was enjoying the debate until hitting your pothole.
DeleteSorry guys, mountain lions do not drag their kills into trees. Neither do African lions. The only big cats that do that are leopards, and part of the reason they're able to has to do with their anatomy. Leopards are the only big cats that have wrist joints that can lock into place. When locked they can use their claws to pull themselves up the same way a mountaineer would use a ax pick. If they didn't have that adaptation they wouldn't be able to deal with the weight of what they were carrying.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is only the head of a deer, which wouldn't be of interest to a predator anyway (all the good stuff is in the body). This looks like a person has thrown it up there, probably just as a joke to freak people out or something. saying it's a bigfoot is ridiculous. Why would a bigfoot (assuming they even exist) need to drag its kills up into a tree? Leopards need to for protection, but would an animal that's supposedly 8 foot tall, 500 pounds? I doubt it. Also it's not even ape behavior. Chimps make their kills on the ground usually, and eat on the ground, even if they have to go into trees to make the kills in the first place. I don't think this is anything.
Sam
First of all, you're wrong. Mountain Lions can and do drag carcasses up into trees. It's been documented many times. Where did you get your anatomical mis-information?
DeleteSecond.. predators will take ANYTHING that has meat on it as food, especially in the wintertime.
Do you actually live somewhere near a lion habitat? If you did, you would find deer backbones and other parts in trees from time to time.
Okay, can show me a link or something saying that mountain lions take their prey into trees? Also, even if you're right, the only purpose for a lion doing so would be to keep the kill away from scavengers - and even then, scavengers that could usurp the deer away from the cat (we're talking bears, wolves). Does this state have wolves or bears? Get back to me on that... Now i'm willing (sort of, actually not really) to buy that mountain lions could drag something as large as a deer up a tree for that reason, but no predator would expend the energy that would require for just the head of an animal. that makes zero sense. What would be the point, there's no meat on it.
DeleteAlso, it's true about leopards and their locking wrist joints. Read up on it.
Sam
Thinking outside the box for other ideas...
ReplyDeleteTornado?
Dropped out of someones helicopter?
Dear some how climbed the tree and got stuck and in its final struggle somehow decapitated itself?
An eagle or vulture carried it off and dropped it?
Juvenile highjinks?
This is actually a backwoods competition for Missouri folk (the person who throws the dear head the highest wins, thus it stayed there)?
Bigfoot threw it up there for what ever reason?
Now lets think inside the narrow little minded box that it was a cougar or large cat...
Where is the rest of the carcass?
Why would something expend all that energy to take a dear head that far up the tree when the good meat is in the body?
Point is, saying its a cougar raises just as many questions as saying its a Squatch or backwoods competition.
Sure would like to know if there are any claw marks on the tree or if the rest of the body is close by.
I repeat, stop using reason and logic with these people. Your killing the spirit of run a muck stupidity!!
Deletehttp://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=168871609892312&set=a.125196200926520.23709.100003084225630&type=1&theater
ReplyDeleteIt was a mountain lion. There is no mystery.
ReplyDeleteGeez. The very idea someone would think bigfoot did it makes me blush.
SRSLY???
How gullible do you have to be? How ignorant of North American species do you have to be? You'd have to be as sharp as a wet sack of mice to think a "squatch" did this.
I live in an area thick with mountain lions and my father used to hunt rogue lions for the state. A big Tom could haul a big buck up a tree. No problem.
And yes, they are called "lions" for short. If you're talking to someone in the area, you both know you're talking about mountain lions, so you leave the "mountain" part out. Obviously, you aren't talking about the heavy-bodied, maned kind, although that's what my college roommate thought until I explained my father hunted cougars...pumas...catamounts...panthers. Yes, she was blonde. :D Maybe she believed in bigfoot, too.
My guess is that the guy who made the video put the head up the tree and the pictures of the guy going up to retrieve it were actually taken as he was coming down from having put it there in the first place. Some people will do anything for attention.
ReplyDeleteCougar and yes they can drag a deer into a tree. They climb trees and use them for perches.
ReplyDeletehttp://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/rapidcityjournal.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/editorial/a/79/a7960306-5cd4-11e0-bb35-001cc4c002e0/4d9690221e56a.preview-300.jpg
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/5213909/Animal-pictures-of-the-week-24-April-2009.html?image=17
new anonymous
I finally looked up the Saline Valley Conservation Area. It's in central Missouri, a state where there are no resident cougars.
ReplyDeleteI've been waiting for that comment. Thank you. There is no known cougars living in the state of mo. Sure there is one spotted every few years but most those reports aren't even credible. Undoubtedly there's a few in the state from time to time. Chance of finding a cougar kill in a state that has next to no breeding population?
ReplyDeleteIts rare something like this can be said but it seems as logical to be a sqautch then any other animal in this situation
anon @ 8:39pm
ReplyDeleteHow is it "logical" to say that about a species that hasn't been proven to even exist? What do you know about their feeding habits and that would suggest they even partake in such behavior? Your comment is absurd. Even if i was willing to buy that a bigfoot was involved, and that they did take their kills into trees, where is the body? No predator would waste time with just the head of an animal, let alone hauling 30 feet up a tree. The most "logical" explanation is the simplest one: a person did this. To be frank, it could even be a hoax.
Sam
ps. Incidentally, i do agree with you that it wasn't a cougar...
DeleteSorry guys and anon at 8:39pm
DeleteThere ARE Mountain Lions/Cougars in Missouri...
The Missouri conservation dept reports that there were 14 confirmed sightings of Mountain Lions in Missouri in 2011 and three were killed by hunters or land owners.
http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/wi...n-lion-reports
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Reynolds County incident now brings the total number of “confirmed” mountain lion reports in Missouri to 27. Oddly enough, over half (14) of these confirmed reports occurred last year alone.
http://www.newspressnow.com/sports/30211643/detail.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This has the information about the Reynolds capture cited above and tells the Cougar was released back in the wild.
http://easterncougar.org/CougarNews/?p=5047
LOL back in the wilds of Missouri, that is.
DeleteAn interesting side note to this story, in my state of Tennessee, the game and fish dept. (TWRA) claims that cougars or panthers do not exist anymore in our state. The TWRA claim they were eradicated in the early 1900s. Yet by their own admission they take over 200 sighting reports a year and have an officer that is assigned to take and investigate reports. That seems strange to me, why take and investigate reports on an animal that "does not exist"? This begs the question what else are they not telling us?????
ReplyDeleteThe state game commissions would prefer to not endorse the idea that these cats are building back up in the east.
DeleteThere are many reasons for this. One is that should they admit it, they then have crazies running out into the woods trying to kill them. Then there's the farmers, some of whom look for the easiest mark to blame for stock loss. They would also have to start tracking and counting which costs money and manpower.
It's best left unsaid....at least until the populations get to the point where denial no longer works.
Scott McMan
Ghosttheory.com
Wild cats prefer to bury their kills but will drag them up into trees on occasion, especially if they smell or have seen a scavenger in the area.
ReplyDeleteOf course there are nut jobs out there who will climb a tree and place a carcass or part of one as a prank.
IMO, these are the only two valid choices.
Scott McMan
Ghosttheory.com
Poacher - coming back later for the antlers......
ReplyDeleteSure, "no cougars in MO" but it must be a Bigfoot! And a tree climbing one at that! ;)
ReplyDeleteCougars are spreading eastwards due to population and deer.
There are confirmed sightings and kills in IL...hell, one was killed in Chicago about 2-3 years ago.
Use some common sense.
New Anonymous
It's a common fact that up here in Canada, cougars drag their kills into trees so other scavangers can't get to them. I even remember seeing a documentary where one was filmed dragging a deer into a tree.
ReplyDeleteChad
Sometimes I just shake my head at these comments, you guys are interested in bigfoot and don't even know anything about animals. First off mountain lions only drag kills up into a tree if it needs to walk away from it and it doesnt want other predators taking it. African lions don't drag kills into trees because they kill in groups and since their are alot of lions in a pride they don't worry about having their kill taken from them.
ReplyDeleteGenerally agree, Anonymous 1:42:00 PM PST, lions are poor tree climbers so don't cache prey in trees like leopards and other arboreal felines do. It could have been a cougar though.
DeleteJust read up on Mountain lion facts READ THE FACTSm don't speculate or use heresay...it is stated by studies and observers for centuries.
ReplyDeleteCougars do NOT put their kill in tree's, They cover it on the ground. It is in their nature to do so. It has been studied and documented and watched. You will not find a study on Mountain lions say " every once in a while they put their kill in a tree" It does not happen. You will find places in the woods where a mountain lion will cache several deer at a time on the ground covered in leaf litter and brush. To make statements to the contrary shows your ingnorance and refusal to read what other people smarter than you have spent a life time studying.
My guess is that a hunter put the deer head up in the tree so that the flesh would eventually disappear leaving him with a skull and antlers that weren't eaten by rodents.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good possibility too.
DeleteYeah, this is getting weird. Can someone show me something (reputable) that says mountain lions take their kills into trees? Just one article that confirms it. so far everyone's just going back and forth on it without anything to back it up. And saying you're a hunter with five decades experience with mountain lions doesn't count.
ReplyDeleteI suppose if it were true about cougars taking kills into trees, then maybe the cat did so to avoid a bear or something (are there even bears in MO?) on the ground, but then the carcass broke off at the head. The torso falls to the ground and the cougar wont risk jumping down to go after it. The bear or whatever drags the rest of it away, and the cat is just left with the head in the tree. I dunno, anyone got anything better?
Sam
They only cat in North America that will climb trees with heavy prey in their mouth & even feed in the trees are the not infrequently seen leopards (usually melanistic black phase) escaped/released from exotic pet owners, private zoos, canned hunts, drug dealers/gangbangers etc. Or the famous "black panthers" (Carolinas/Kentucky) of the American South, which may be a hybrid from the slave trader days.
ReplyDeleteOr it could be an outsize giant hawk or giant owl or freakishly outsize Golden Eagle (Thunderbird).
Or a very bored juvenile bigfoot (if it was always just a deer head only carried up into the tree)/
i know where this happened at i have hunted the saline valley conservation land many times and im sure if the rest of the people who has posted about this head in a tree knew the area it would become very clear how that head got up in the tree . Im going to say it was put there by a human .If you watch the video you will see in the back ground a high fence well let me tell ya guys and possibly gals that fence was put there by a man with the last name of lincoln he is a very rich man who bought over 4 thousand acres that joins the conservation area know as the saline valley conservation area .And behind that tall fence this man Lincoln has all types of animals that are not native to missouri im talking like elk mule deer and stuff like that. Well most of the locals that live around there cannot stand that man because the area he bought and put that high fence around oh ya did i forget to mention he built like a 30 thousand square foot mansion on that farm and all sorts of stuff he even payed to have one of the county gravel roads paved for about 3 1/2 miles asphalted to his main gate and on the inside of his fence he pays men to patrol the fence with ATVs all the time he has motion detectors even burried around the fence . well anyhow the place he bought used to be called the MRS.Stevenson farm and alot of the locals do not take kindly to this man and there has been some retalation because of the way this man has moved into the area and started slinging his weight around so if i was a betting man i would say someone killed that deer off his place and drug it over off his ground and cut the head off and put it in the tree to leave a calling card for him i would almost bet anything on it I personaly know alot of them old boys that live around there but that would be my guess
ReplyDeleteI live down in Saline, I put it up there.
ReplyDelete