Posted on 05/09/2017 2:34:42 PM PDT by Red Badger
Forensic scientists studying human decomposition spotted an unexpected animal chewing on the remains.
Its attention caught, a deer found eating a human corpse looks up, a rib dangling from its mouth. Photograph courtesy Lauren A. Meckel/Academia ================================================================================================================================
In an unprecedented finding, researchers spotted a deer chewing on a human rib during a study aimed at examining how human remains decompose in the wild.
Scavengers take advantage of opportunities to eat, and carcasses left in the wild often decay quickly because animals can make quick work of the remains–even human remains.
Known as “body farms,” some research facilities study how human remains decompose in the open air, including which animals interact with the corpse.
Left: In the first recorded incident of its kind, a white-tailed deer is seen gnawing on a human rib.Right: A human rib is seen with a forked split, showing where a white-tailed deer chewed on the bone. Photograph courtesy Lauren A. Meckel/Academia
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Foxes, turkey vultures, raccoons, and other scavengers are commonly seen helping themselves to decomposing bodies. Researchers at the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility in San Marcos, Texas, set up a camera to see whether any other scavengers would stop by–and they were not disappointed.
In a study published this week in the Journal of Forensic Sciences, researchers highlighted their finding: Ungulates, too, will partake in human flesh, if it’s available.
White-tailed deer are considered herbivores and subsist on a diet of readily available plants, including twigs, fruits, nuts, alfalfa, and the occasional fungi. (Read more about the white-tailed deer.)
This is the first time scientists have observed deer eating human flesh, though they have been known to turn carnivorous in the past, eating fish, dead rabbits, and even live birds.
In a second incident, a deer (perhaps the same animal, but likely a different one) visits the carcass to chew on a bone. Photograph courtesy Lauren A. Meckel/Academia ===========================================================================================================================
Deer may pursue flesh because they lack minerals like phosphorous, salt, and calcium, especially in the winter months when plant life is scarce.
While this finding sheds light on deer behavior, forensic scientists are also heralding the study as useful for cases in which a body has long been decomposing. If scientists can identify the teeth marks of deer and other ungulates on human bones, it will help in new cases and could clear up confusion in older crime scenes, where only carnivorous scavengers were thought to chew on human bones.
Calcium supplement.
Carnivorous Deer Ping!......................
What goes around comes around...
They can’t go to Walmart pharmacy like everyone else?...........
Might they be elf bones?
Or leprechauns?.................
Is that an antler sticking out of the rib cage of the corpse?
I thought deer were my friends!!
Known as “body farms,” some research facilities study how human remains decompose in the open air, including which animals interact with the corpse
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Thank God I remembered to check the box that says my corpse is not to be used on a ‘body farm’.
I think these pics are from ‘The Body Farm’.
They have to stake the bodies dow to prevent them from being dragged away by coyotes, wolves, etc.............
They will kill you when you ain’t lookin’.....................
Braaaaainnnnsssss ....
There’s only one as far as I know.................In Tennessee I think..............
LOL!...................
Ribs without any sauce or dry rub? Yecchh.
The surly Cervidae later busted up the local watering hole.
I hate when deer eat my bones.
These people (of the article) are idiots.
The deer is going after minerals. You have to be extremely educated today to be their level of stupid.
Agreed.
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