A couple years back I got a call from a landowner about an issue he was having with a big male lion (scaring the grow irrigation guy)...Then a big buck dead was discovered in the same area as the lion reports...The ranch manager put one of my cameras on the kill...Sure enough the big cat shows back up to finish his meal and he got some good pix of him.
I was on my way home from Montana...But as soon as I got home, the manager and I went to go see the buck in person...No buck...A short distance away though, I find drag marks...We follow these down into a canyon and eventually find a buck...But, it's not the big guy, just a forky and a fairly fresh kill.
Fast forward a year later (2019), a big fire blows through and clears a lot of brush...Sure enough, I find a skeleton of deer not far from the original big buck kill site...But again, no sign of the head or antlers...Bones were all over...So, I assumed the head was carried off by coyotes or something.
Well today, I went up to try and figure out where all the turkeys had gone...Only saw 2 of those, but as I walked through a avocado grove, I see what appears to be a head and antlers...Sure enough, it's him...21" wide, heavy, 4x4, and eye guards...It appears the head was cut off, but the grovers have mostly gone these days with the grove no longer being used.
Want to give this old guy his proper place....Dang lions.
.
I was on my way home from Montana...But as soon as I got home, the manager and I went to go see the buck in person...No buck...A short distance away though, I find drag marks...We follow these down into a canyon and eventually find a buck...But, it's not the big guy, just a forky and a fairly fresh kill.
Fast forward a year later (2019), a big fire blows through and clears a lot of brush...Sure enough, I find a skeleton of deer not far from the original big buck kill site...But again, no sign of the head or antlers...Bones were all over...So, I assumed the head was carried off by coyotes or something.
Well today, I went up to try and figure out where all the turkeys had gone...Only saw 2 of those, but as I walked through a avocado grove, I see what appears to be a head and antlers...Sure enough, it's him...21" wide, heavy, 4x4, and eye guards...It appears the head was cut off, but the grovers have mostly gone these days with the grove no longer being used.
Want to give this old guy his proper place....Dang lions.
.
