A sorry end to a nice buck

D

d4dave1

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I bumped into this while out checking one of our fields some time ago. The picture is not quite as dramatic as when I found it because I had to trim away most of the wire just so I could carry it home on my quad. There was only skeletal remains when I found it, what you see and a piece of spine attached. No indication of how he actually died but it would have been exhaustion, starvation or coyotes I would think. The wire is wound around his antlers so tight that I cannot unwind it by hand even with gloves on. My guess is a coyote dragged the skull etc. out to the field before I found it. A puzzle for me is that we have no page wire fence on our properties so he must have become tangled at least half a mile away or more. A sorry end to a nice buck with promise to have grown bigger and better. WP_20180105_16_03_53_Pro.jpg
 

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That's too bad, he most likely had a miserable last few hours or more. I found a nice buck that got caught in a wire fence as well a few years ago, he must have died of exaustion just before I arrived because he was still quite warm.
 
I have seen a moose get tangled in barbed wire fence it pulled out a good 1/4 km of it posts and all . It was early spring so I imagined it got tangled up in its frount chest /legs .when I first came across the mess I thought it must have been a vehicle it wasn't untill I found some clear tracks that I figured out what did all this mess .
 
Was driving into Drumheller one day when I spotted a large Mulie buck with a bright orange Afro. Farmers like to hang baler twine on fence posts as they feed and I assume he got tangled up in a bunch. Trying to get rid of it just frizzed it up and Voila. :)

Grizz
 
A lady from weyburn was drawn out my way one year and she shot an impressive mule deer buck that had plenty of barb wire in his antlers. She took pictures and wrote a little story about it. Gary Donald put it in his Big Buck magazine under "57 point buck".
 
...i found the dried body of a nice buck years ago that misjudged his jump over a barbed wire fence...his front feed cleared the fence but his hind feet slipped between the top wire and the next one down and he hung there exhausted until he died...on the other hand elk here regularly just run right through wire fences if panicked and break the wire...seen that up close before...gotta leave a mark...and moose have gotten themselves tangled in smooth wire around our orchards which is why i took the fencing down, but now i'm a rogue since the gov't wants fences up around all orchards in order to keep animals out for disease reasons...really?...what bologna if a deer drops some pellets next to some plants!
 
Last July we found a couple fallow bucks both with their antlers tangled in the same ball of page wire. One was dead and the landowner took out the other with a boning knife. I guess he was boned anyway.

We sort of speculate that one got tangled and the other decided to beat him up while he had a chance, but will never really know.
 
I once saw a moose do his best imitation of Wile E Coyote when I was driving down a small secondary highway in west central Alberta.

He was a small bull and was with a much larger bull, down slope from the highway, and they were obviously thinking about crossing the highway when I showed up. The big bull didn't waste any time as he turned, jumped the fence and splashed through a small pond heading out into the bush. The small bull turned to follow but was still looking back over his shoulder at me when he hit the barbed wire fence. This flipped him a** over pickle dish and must have winded him a bit because he just lay there on his back for a few seconds with his legs sticking straight up in the air. This gave me time to stop the car and watch, all the while laughing myself blind. It just looked so darn funny.

But Bullwinkle wasn't done yet. He rolled over to his feet and attempted a heroic "leap" to his feet and then run away. Unfortunately the Judges rated his "leap" a 2.1 and he promptly staggered directly into a poplar tree. It must have stunned him a bit because he almost sat right down on his haunches like a dog. By now I was wishing I had a video camera and I had tears running down my face from laughing. Then he lurched forward to get his back legs under him again and the muddy slope at the edge of the pond did him in. Full on sideways into the pond he goes. By now I am sure he could hear me laughing inside my car because when he got to his feet he just turned and faced me and stood there glaring at me as if to say "Okay a**hole...BRING IT!!"

At this point I decided discretion might be the better part of valour and put my car back in gear and drove away. I gave him a couple of beeps on the horn just for fun but he never reacted at all. Every time I drive down that highway and pass that spot I start laughing again.
 
When I lived in the Shuswap area, twice I discovered deer that had become trapped by the two top strands
of a barbed-wire fence. One was dead, and the yotes had been dining on him.
The other was a doe, very much alive. I cut the one strand of wire to free her, and she almost seemed grateful,
not in a big hurry to leave, even though I was only a few feet away.
I knew all the farmers who lived in the area, so told the landowner about what had transpired, and helped him mend
his fence.
Also had a decent muley buck get up out of his bed when a couple of us were pheasant hunting. He headed for the
nearby woods, looking at us on the dead run, and piled full tilt into a 5-strand barbed-wire fence. It knocked him
right back on his haunches, but he got up, jumped the fence, and was gone. We had a good laugh at his expense. EE
 
quite a few years ago I had to stop for a Z71 pickup parked right in the middle of the road with 2 guys standing there a yearling doe standing right there in a daze.
I guess what happened was the adult doe crossed in front and her fawn went for a jump over the page wire fence and got her back legs snagged on the fence and went for a spill. She jumped up right away and ran to cross the road, and went headfirst into the box of the then stopped Z71.
She was quite dazed and just stood there. I got out of my truck and learned this story from the guys standing there.
Now here's the hilarious part. One of the guys thought it was a good idea to give this young doe a smack in the rump, thinking it would get her moving. The first light tap he gave her had no effect. The second 1 was harder and woke her up, and she donkey kicked. Well he was right behind her. He jumped backed and her hooves just missed him, he ended up tripping and down he went onto the road.
The deer took a couple jumps and she was gone. I told him before hand this was likely not a real good idea, but the other guy and myself were laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his face.
 
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