What happened to this elk?

[Felton]

Back in September I shot this bull. When we found him all these clumps of hair were pulled out from his rump. We let him sit for 2 hours before we started looking for him and found him ~30 mins later. I have an idea what happened but it’s really just a guess. Have you seen this before and or know what happened?

 

[brooketrt]

Cat will do that before they start to eat


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[Shō[t]gun]

Kitty cat checks out. Did you see any tracks around?

 

[Felton]

We briefly looked for tracks but did not see any. That’s not to say there wasn’t any. Though it was pretty clean from under brush and should have been easy to spot tracks.

 

[brooketrt]

I’m sure it was still there watching you while you worked him down


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[feanor]

Very interesting. Thanks for sharing the info. This is why I love this forum.

 

[Felton]

Good thing I left my firearm in the truck lol.

 

[bow_dozer]

Thats crazy if it was a cat and agreed, probably had eyes on you the whole time.. Almost looks like mange on the rump

 

[Felton]

I agree, it kinda did look like mange on the hind quarter. We didn’t find any hair while tracking it and found 2-3 different spots where he crashed and got back up. That fur you see on top is just sitting there easily brushed off with a single swipe of the hand. There’s no way it stayed on his back through the death run and crashes. I went back and looked at time stamps from pictures and it was less than 2 hours from the time I shot him and the time we found him.

 

[Felton]

Here’s another view. It really looks like the loose fur on top is from that back quarter.

 

[BRTreedogs]

He died.
That's what happened

 

[Jbehredt]

Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame!

 

[Maverick1]

@Felton :
Q: "What happened to this elk?"
A: You shot it and it died.

 

[Felton]

Lol, I knew it was only a matter of time before I got that response! Good thing I got some great info before the comedians showed up!

Que the meme monster rokslide is known for!

 

[Shō[t]gun]

Here’s another view. It really looks like the loose fur on top is from that back quarter.

View attachment 638327

Great shot

 

[Larry Bartlett]

I've seen ravens do this trying to get into the cavity. On goats and sheep they seem to prefer to target the eyes first then the body.

But also look under those clumps of hair to see if the hide had warble fly hatch under the skin...also common.

 

[Lowedown]

he looks like a healthy specimen so I would agree it was most likely a cat getting started on him. Could it be possible this was from a fended off attack that happened before you took him? That would have dislodged a lot of hair, and stress would have kept it loose?? very interesting

 

[Indian Summer]

Birds. Always first on the scene. Ravens, magpies, and grey jays aka camp robbers or whiskey jacks.

 

[Tiny]

Great shot.

 

[Jbenson]

Yeah before I seen the cat responses, I was guessing birds. No clue though. Interesting.