A forensic science research team placed a trail camera on a human corpse to study the decomposition process as part of a project related to criminal investigations.
Scientists readily expected scavengers to show an interest in the bodily remains, but they were shocked to see a deer gnawing on the bones.
According to Field & Stream, the project took place at the 26-acre Forensic Anthropology Research Center in San Marcos, Texas.
As part of the research project, the body was left in the woods under the surveillance of a motion detecting camera to see how scavengers like coyotes, foxes, vultures, and raccoons impacted the decaying process.
While all those animals remained camera shy, this crazy deer dove in head first and took a bite. It’s the first ever footage of a wild deer consuming human remains.
The deer seems to be chomping on a human rib bone, it hanging from its mouth “like a cigar,” as one researcher referred to it.
“Deer eat a lot of unusual things,” says Kip Adams, a biologist with the National Deer Association.
“For example, there are accounts of deer eating spent shell casings at shooting ranges, other accounts of them eating bones, and other accounts of them eating eggs and recently hatched chicks.
Most of these instances are likely nutritionally related, protein, energy, minerals… but some may be experimental.”
All in the name of science.
