WTHELLO Are They Eating?

[J-B welder]

Not entirely. I remember being shocked taking my first course in WildLife Management when we read a paper on deer eating mice.

Do Deer Eat Mice? - Wild Explained

Mice are regularly hunted by many animals. There are animals that eat mice on a daily basis, as the main part of their diet. But do mice have to worry about deer also? Do deer eat mice? It is rarely the case for deer to eat mice or other meat origins. Deer are herbivores animals, ... Read more

wildexplained.com

Generally yes they are herbivorous but they will eat meat opportunistically particularly if they are starving for proteins or certain other nutrients.

Well I'll be a blue-nosed gopher. Ain't never heard of such a thing. I guess you learn something new every day if you're not careful.

 

[WildRose]

Well I'll be a blue-nosed gopher. Ain't never heard of such a thing. I guess you learn something new every day if you're not careful.

I promise, this is the one website I visit where if I spend an hour just going around reading I will learn something every day. Kept me coming back for ten years now.

 

[skipglo]

I watched 2 does eat several nestlings out of ground nest few years back. So they also eat dead fish off a beach! Saw that as well!

Must have been a young male deer....he was a real Son of a Beach!

 

[snox801]

HOLY COW! Had to read this a second time cause I did not see the letter "i" in last word!

Boy that would be something if they were munching on those

 

[WildRose]

HOLY COW! Had to read this a second time cause I did not see the letter "i" in last word!

Leave them laying around and a hungry deer might just eat them too!

 

[Muddyboots]

Looked over leaf pile and yep nothing but leaves.

 

[WildRose]

Looked over leaf pile and yep nothing but leaves.
View attachment 341573

Must be starving. I think I'd spill some corn or peanuts in the yard and pretend I didn't. Of course, whole or cracked milo camouflages well.

 

[Muddyboots]

There is so much food everywhere that is why this is such a head scratcher. There is Ag field 100 yards away they have torn up and you see them piled in there. I have about 2.5 acres managed into browse area and they slam that as well. So maybe there is a natural hallucinogen in the leaf pile? They can be so weird in what they do at times!

 

[WildRose]

There is so much food everywhere that is why this is such a head scratcher. There is Ag field 100 yards away they have torn up and you see them piled in there. I have about 2.5 acres managed into browse area and they slam that as well. So maybe there is a natural hallucinogen in the leaf pile? They can be so weird in what they do at times!

Odd. Maybe just some fungus/bacteria that smells and tastes good you just can't see.

This may seem weird but you might consider scratching around the pile like a deer then get down on hands and knees and see what you smell. If there's a rich, musty, kind of inviting odor I think you'll have your answer.

 

[Muddyboots]

If there's a rich, musty, kind of inviting odor I think you'll have your answer.

Do I really want to respond to this?

 

[WildRose]

Do I really want to respond to this?

Think of the odor of fresh tilled soil. What you're actually smelling is the actinomycetes bacteria and various fungi.

Actinomycetes benefaction role in soil and plant health - PubMed

Actinomycetes are aerobic, spore forming gram-positive bacteria, belonging to the order actinomycetales characterized with substrate and aerial mycelium growth. They are the most abundant organisms that form thread-like filaments in the soil and are responsible for characteristically "earthy"...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Ol' Red]

When you pile up any vegetation and let it sit for a while it makes silage. Fermentation process starts and makes it very edible to animals. Cows would pass up hay if there was silage instead. It digests easily and even has a slight alcohol content. We used to cut and chop sorghum for silage for cows and the deer would be waiting for it in the winter. I have also seen whitetail eat baby robins out of a low nest.

 

[Muddyboots]

I get the fermentation process since I helped a local farmer chop corn for silage and run into silo. That's another story on moonshine! The problem I see is these leaves were from November timeline and on top so no chance for anything to develop in December January temperatures. They are not really digging down but just surface feeding if the fresh put leaves.

 

[skipglo]

There is so much food everywhere that is why this is such a head scratcher. There is Ag field 100 yards away they have torn up and you see them piled in there. I have about 2.5 acres managed into browse area and they slam that as well. So maybe there is a natural hallucinogen in the leaf pile? They can be so weird in what they do at times!

Muddy....have you been smoking those leaves ....and seeing more Deer AGAIN?