Scientists catch deer eating human remains
A deer gnaws on a human rib CREDIT: JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
Adam Boult
10 MAY 2017 • 4:42PM
A deer has been spotted eating human remains for the first time. The animals are typically herbivores, although they will occasionally eat meat and chew on bones. Scientists believe this is the first recorded incident of a deer eating a human.The incident was capture
d by a motion-sensitive camera at a 'body farm' - a 26-acre facility in San Marcos, Texas, where human cadavers are left in the elements in order to study the process of decay and decomposition.
The body in question was placed in the woods in July 2014. Most of the soft tissue was stripped by vultures, and it wasn't until six months later that the young white-tailed deer was seen on camera with one of the ribs “extending from the side of the mouth like a cigar."
Eight days later a deer - possibly the same one - was seen once again chewing on another rib.
Researcher Lauren Meckel, writing in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, said: "We thought the forensic community might like to know about it so we published this brief report on the first case of a deer scavenging human bone."
A human bone would be a good source of essential minerals for a dear that was otherwise struggling to find nutritious food.