I was driving out to our farm two days ago and a deer carcass caught my eye in the ditch on the way, almost at the end of the road about a quarter to half mile from our farm entrance. This is on a dead end gravel road miles from a highway with only one older lady living at the end of the gravel road. Very few cars travel this road daily, sometimes none. The boned out ribs of a deer caught my eye on the way by and as there was a deer season open recently, I didn't think anything of it other that it was an unusual place for a hunter to drop the carcass. Hunters will sometimes drop a boned out carcass on the other side of the road as there is a more natural drop off into a ravine.
On the second or third pass I stopped to look at it and realized that it was an doe that might have been hit by a car and eaten by coyotes over the night. After looking the deer over, I noticed a blood spot on the deer's jaw/throat as well as blood coming out of the mouth. I probed around the blood spot and found a wide tear in the hide, as well as a deep puncture wound deep enough to fit my pinky in to the knuckle, in the muscle below. As I looked closer, I realized that this was most likely a fresh cougar kill (I live in farm country in Eastern Washington and nobody ever sees cougars here and very few even know they live where we live). It was immediately apparent this came from up hill so I decided to investigate further. A 4 barb, barb wire fence sits atop a steep 10' bank directly above where I found the doe. After looking the barb wire fence over, I noticed that there was blood all over the top wire of the 4 barb fence, approximately 3.5 feet off the ground. It was eerie that no hair caught any of the barbs on the top wire. Whatever killed this doe, picked her up and jumped cleanly over a 4 barb fence.
From there, it was easy to follow the blood/hair trail into a thicket. Every couple feet there were clumps of hair and drops of blood going approximately 50 yards up into the thicket up until a natural bedding area. As I followed this trail of hair and blood, I had to be on my hands and knees as it was not tall enough for me to stand, only hunched over. Eventually, the blood and hair stopped at a natural bedding area with a couple approaches into the bedding area. On the way back out, I noticed (but have no idea why I didn't get a picture) a drop of clear fluid on a leaf next to a drop of blood. I can only guess this was saliva dripping out of the cougars mouth as it was carrying it. I so regret not getting a picture of it.
From what I can gather from the scene and my limited knowledge of cougars and their behavior, sometime the night before, a cougar stalked this mule deer doe, caught her in her bed and suffocated her by her throat, then walked down the thicket to the fence, hopped the fence then ate her while perched above the county road. It either slid down the bank during the middle of eating or possibly was drug down by coyotes after the cougar left. When I found the deer, the soft tissue was still fresh and soft, and the blood still very fresh. The deer was almost completely consumed with only a little neck meat still on the neck of the doe. All the bones were stripped clean as was all of the organs with the exception of the stomach and its cud.
It was powerful to witness the efficiency and brutality of such an animal. The cougar was doing exactly what it was bred and has evolved to do; to keep the mule deer population in check. We have an over abundance of does on our farm which routinely hurt/destroy some of the crops we grow, so as hard as nature is, this cougar may ultimately have been helping us. I am in awe of such an apex predator, so cunning and elusive that very few people even know that they live among us. I have included a few pictures from last February when I walked out the dirt canyon road, about a mile past this kill, looking for coyotes to thin during lambing season and came across this cougar track.
On the second or third pass I stopped to look at it and realized that it was an doe that might have been hit by a car and eaten by coyotes over the night. After looking the deer over, I noticed a blood spot on the deer's jaw/throat as well as blood coming out of the mouth. I probed around the blood spot and found a wide tear in the hide, as well as a deep puncture wound deep enough to fit my pinky in to the knuckle, in the muscle below. As I looked closer, I realized that this was most likely a fresh cougar kill (I live in farm country in Eastern Washington and nobody ever sees cougars here and very few even know they live where we live). It was immediately apparent this came from up hill so I decided to investigate further. A 4 barb, barb wire fence sits atop a steep 10' bank directly above where I found the doe. After looking the barb wire fence over, I noticed that there was blood all over the top wire of the 4 barb fence, approximately 3.5 feet off the ground. It was eerie that no hair caught any of the barbs on the top wire. Whatever killed this doe, picked her up and jumped cleanly over a 4 barb fence.
From there, it was easy to follow the blood/hair trail into a thicket. Every couple feet there were clumps of hair and drops of blood going approximately 50 yards up into the thicket up until a natural bedding area. As I followed this trail of hair and blood, I had to be on my hands and knees as it was not tall enough for me to stand, only hunched over. Eventually, the blood and hair stopped at a natural bedding area with a couple approaches into the bedding area. On the way back out, I noticed (but have no idea why I didn't get a picture) a drop of clear fluid on a leaf next to a drop of blood. I can only guess this was saliva dripping out of the cougars mouth as it was carrying it. I so regret not getting a picture of it.
From what I can gather from the scene and my limited knowledge of cougars and their behavior, sometime the night before, a cougar stalked this mule deer doe, caught her in her bed and suffocated her by her throat, then walked down the thicket to the fence, hopped the fence then ate her while perched above the county road. It either slid down the bank during the middle of eating or possibly was drug down by coyotes after the cougar left. When I found the deer, the soft tissue was still fresh and soft, and the blood still very fresh. The deer was almost completely consumed with only a little neck meat still on the neck of the doe. All the bones were stripped clean as was all of the organs with the exception of the stomach and its cud.
It was powerful to witness the efficiency and brutality of such an animal. The cougar was doing exactly what it was bred and has evolved to do; to keep the mule deer population in check. We have an over abundance of does on our farm which routinely hurt/destroy some of the crops we grow, so as hard as nature is, this cougar may ultimately have been helping us. I am in awe of such an apex predator, so cunning and elusive that very few people even know that they live among us. I have included a few pictures from last February when I walked out the dirt canyon road, about a mile past this kill, looking for coyotes to thin during lambing season and came across this cougar track.
