Bambi’s revenge? Deer photographed nibbling on human bones, a … – Washington Post

Warning: This post includes images of human remains that might be disturbing to some readers.

Although they are herbivores, deer have been spotted eating meat and gnawing on bones before. But not this kind of bones.

Peer closely at the photos below, and you might discern that dem bonesare people bones. More precisely, they are rib bones.

Wellget right out of the way that no horrified relatives are just now learning that their missing loved ones fate was to be deer dinner. The body from which these bones came was placed withthe highest scientific goals in mind on the floor of that forest, which is better known as the ForensicAnthropology Research Facility in San Marcos, Texas.

The 26-acre facility is one of several body farms around the nation where researchersplunk donated bodies out in the elementsto study the process of human decay and decomposition.Usually the bodies are placed inside a cage to prevent the interference of scavengers. But sometimestheyreleft unprotectedto see justwho might come along to snack on the carcass. Images from remote cameras have revealed that regular diners include rodents, coyotes, raccoons and foxes.

[Nest cam livestreams bald eagle parents feeding a cat to their eaglets]

This particular body, which researchers deposited in July 2014, was initially stripped by vultures. Then, the following January, a remote camera snapped shots of a new visitor to the scene: a young white-tailed deer. It looked very daintybut for the human rib bone extending from the side of the mouth like a cigar, in the words ofthe researchers, who wrote about these first-ever imagesin the Journal of Forensic Sciences.

Eight days later at the same location, a deer maybe the same one was spotted casually gnawing on another rib bone, looking like one of those rare people who make it through a giant turkey leg at a Renaissance festival.

Other ungulates, or hooved mammals, have also been known to nibble on animal remainsdespite their vegetarian reputation. This often occurs in the cold season,when bone is a good source of essential minerals, such as calcium and sodium, that deer and their cousins cannot procure fromtheir local forests barren midwinter produce section.

In an email, lead author Lauren Meckel, a graduate student at Texas State University, emphasized that the deer caught on camera was not flesh-eating. It was bone-eating, and more specifically, it was dry-bone eating.Carnivores typically go for fresh remains and puncture the bones, whereas ungulates prefer desiccated bonesand leave behind a stripped, forked pattern withtheir zigzagging jaws, the paper notes.

This might actually be useful, and not just grisly, information. While ungulates are not big players inwhat the authors refer to as the scavenging guild, Meckel saidthe Texas discoverycould help investigators who are analyzing human remains determine the cause of bone damage and whether it happened at the time of death or later, perhaps when Bambineeded a calcium boost.

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Bambi's revenge? Deer photographed nibbling on human bones, a ... - Washington Post