Scavenging Predators

Discovering a winter-kill along an old logging road during early March I took the opportunity to document the various animals that passed by and or fed upon the carcass.    By placing a simple trail camera nearby I was able to monitor the carcass and collected thousands of images while doing so over the next two months.  Starting in mid March turkey vultures began visiting almost daily, however this post will focus upon the visiting predators.

Twice during the filming a bobcat passed by but apparently did not stop to feed.  The most voracious mammal scavengers were the raccoons , with some nights finding raccoons feeding from dusk until dawn and sometimes as many as four animals in one photo.

Following the raccoons in visit frequency were the opossums.  The opossum visits started the last week of March after some decay had began.  The opossum visits continued until the last remnants had disappeared.

Once in early April and then again three weeks later a black bear was captured passing the carcass.  However as in the case of the bobcat visits no images captured the bear feeding.  Also during April the carcass was visited and fed upon a number of times by a red fox/foxes.

 By late April the carcass the meat was virtually gone with only skin and bones remaining.  It was only then that the coyote visits began and soon both the skin and bones were carried away.