As usual, the hunting season has brought another email of pictures to be questioned. In this case it is a set of pictures of a story that can be truth, fiction or somewhere in between. The story sounded crazy at first and then I received it again from another source and yet another story emerged. Finally as I write this blog post there is a third email with yet another variation of the pictures.
I love to see and read about these events. They can be recited again and again and somewhere along that trail, the story branches off emerging as multiple accounts of the same beginning set of pictures. The funny thing is I never find that actual truth or photographer of these pictures. I could be reading the facts, fiction based of someone’s account, or some variation of a person reading the story and adding their commentary into it.
Please be aware as you scroll down through the story you will see a graphic set of pictures of 2 coyotes having an encounter with a monster whitetail deer in front of a trail cam. You can click on any image to make it larger.
As you can see in these pictures, the story is “obviously” about two coyotes who are fighting with the deer and the deer is getting the short end of the stick. The trail cam has different frames, time stamps, and in each picture there is more and more damage to the whitetail. The gruesome end to the story is the deer lying dead with the second to last frame shpwing the coyotes feasting. In the last frame, long after the battle ended, is vultures having their meal on the carcass.
My Opinion About These Images
This trail cam account seems a little far out there as, in my mind, it is not possible for a monster whitetail buck to be taken down by only two tiny coyotes. If I was to forward it, another story could emerge depending on what I did with the email.
Now the three email stories that have come from different sources and circles of friends:
- The coyotes must have ran the deer until it had no energy to fend of the predators, they teamed up on the deer and eventually the end came with the coyotes getting there meal.
- The deer is injured and could not escape the attack and fell victim to these smaller competitors.
- The deer was wounded by a hunter in the area and since this was the deer’s home area, the deer was on a trail that the person owning the camera put it on.
- The deer was hit by a car in the rear end and the coyotes were just finishing the job the car started.
As you review the pictures you can see where a person would have the same opinion as I first did, but the three variations of story seem more like a person trying to make sense of how the pictures represent what really did happen. Somewhere in there their mind has turned a picture or story into an actual account.
When forwarded to their email chain they inject their own thoughts, thus distorting the actual story. Since email does not show expression of opinion or have an immediate feedback loop, the next person reads the story and concludes the story must be “fact, fiction, or half truth”. They will either forward it on as is or as many do let their mind come up with their own conclusion of what must really happen and repeat the same email chain in a different direction and a different story will emerge. This process could repeat multiple times and in different email circles.
This is where the email circle with eventually have a common thread – me. I plan to exposure these myths, fictitious stories, or maybe even facts. Either way I would like to see and hear more about this photo account of two coyotes having an encounter with a monster whitetail buck. Please send me any and all accounts that may have received or heard. You can leave a comment below or reach out to me via the members section of our website.
About Jason Gill
Not sure what to think?
1) white tailed deer do not get that big by being stupid.
Although he looked a little skinny to me. Possibly CWD or
Some other illness. I could not see any wounds!
2) the “event” took place in front of the same camera, with no movement
From the deer!.
3) mother nature does things we can never explain!!!
By wounds, I meant from an arrow or bullet/slug
Unfortunately I get a lot of emails from friends and family full of far-fetched stories and Photoshopped images of “amazing” events as well. I just have to shake my head at some of the nonsense that gets forwarded as truth.
This one, however, could be legit. I say this because my wife woke me up early one morning to “get a gun and come put this buck out of his misery”. She had been out feeding our horses when she heard barking and other noises in our back pasture. A group of 3 or 4 neighbors’ dogs had somehow caught a mature buck and she saw them going at him. A healer had latched onto one of his forelegs and it was partially severed. He was obviously in trouble.
Now, if this was wildlife in action, neither of us would have intervened. She is a degreed wildlife biologist and I wouldn’t interfere with a predator getting a meal. But this was a group of well-fed family “pets” attacking a beautiful buck simply for the thrill of killing. NOT a cougar or pack of coyotes trying to survive.
By the time I got outside she had been able to separate the dogs enough for the buck to reach some brush and escape. He has been sighted many times over the seasons since then and nobody has taken him on a hunt.
This could be real if the deer was ill or exhausted, we have three beagles we use for rabbit hunting and they began chasing a wounded doe who had been hit in the back leg by an arrow. After about an hour we finally caught up to the dogs and they had the doe trapped in a creek bed and she was layed down and messed up pretty bad. Even once we got the dogs off her she still did not get up so we had to put her out of her misery.
Look at frame 7 – what is that coyote chewing on? same thing that lions chew on when they down a cape bufalo – the tenders. other frames show where the yotes bit and tore at other tender parts. this is why we kill every yote we can kill – they cannot kill large game quickly – that buck suffered for a long time. yotes were built to kill small game and mice, but they attack large game too, especially once they have overpopulated compared to the small game resources, and those bigger animals suffer very badly. this pack of yotes may have chased this buck for hrs before he was too exhausted to fight – i have seen yotes chasing deer on my farm same as we all have seen wolves doing on tv. this video can certainly be real – the buck simply being too exhausted to run any more for whatever reason, and likely that the yotes ran him down in pack style hunting. don’t tell me they don’t do that because as noted, i have seen it first hand on my farm that is carved out of and surounded by wilderness in northern michigan.