Blood in elk beds

[Badam5]

So I’ve been doing some shed hunting recently and I’ve found 4 different elk beds in a couple different bedding areas so it could be the same elk but I’m not positive. In these beds I’ve found a few drops of blood and usually when I find blood this time of year it means there’s an antler near by but I haven’t found any and it makes me wonder if it’s just from a wound. If anyone has seen this I’d love to know.

It’s kinda hard to see but there’s a few drops of blood .

 

[turbobrick]

I’ve come across that in the snow too. It’s in an area where the elk jump a couple fences, and you can see tufts of hair stuck in the barbed wire, so I assumed it was from that.

 

[Badam5]

No fences but it is in a down fall hell hole, so that could be it. I just find it weird there’s no blood anywhere else besides the beds

 

[Ucsdryder]

Push them around a little more, maybe the blood will stop.

 

[johnsd16]

If it’s only in beds or near droppings it may be dark or discolored urine or a little blood in the urine.

 

[7mm-08]

Push them around a little more, maybe the blood will stop.

Along with their time on this earth.

 

[mtnbiker208]

been seeing that all my life.

 

[RockAndSage]

Respectfully, but seriously - shed hunting with snow on the ground is a good way to kill mule deer. Wait until their food is coming back up, and no snow. They are fragile this time of year, more than most genuinely understand. It's an uncomfortable truth that most of us don't want to hear, but it's real.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Respectfully, but seriously - shed hunting with snow on the ground is a good way to kill mule deer. Wait until their food is coming back up, and no snow. They are fragile this time of year, more than most genuinely understand. It's an uncomfortable truth that most of us don't want to hear, but it's real.

Whatever. You gotta get that gram material.

 

[The Harbor Master]

Elk and other animals have certain plant metabolites in their urine that turn a dark orange or red when they oxidize, it's common but way more noticeable in the snow of course. Not sure if that's what you're seeing of if it's clearly blood, hard to tell in the pic.

 

[kodyshriver]

I have commonly seen this as well, and like you have hoped it was due to an animal having recently shed, but not the case. Interested to hear what people will say—I’ve assumed it was due to urine or a gland.

To the people giving you flack for shed hunting in snow: while I understand their position, this guy is in a timbered area. If he bumps an animal, it’s not going across the canyon—it’s going a couple hundred yards and then looking over its shoulder. Far different from the flat-brimmed dudes chasing animals on an ATV until a horn falls off.

 

[idahodave]

Nonsense. The animal is being stressed at a vulnerable time...open country or not. The "it's in the timber so it's okay" is a justification for poor decision-making...nothing more, and nothing less.

I really, really wish there was a ban on picking up sheds in Idaho outside of a defined season.