Have you seen it? The story that’s popped up on social media lately regarding the deer that was caught on camera eating human remains? It’s created quite a buzz from people all over the world. People are astonished at the idea of our sweet, loving, herbivore deer family turning into meat eaters. Carnivores!
Excerpts from some articles like the one below tend to paint quite a picture…
“The animals are typically herbivores, although they will occasionally eat meat and chew on bones. Scientists believe this is the first recorded incident of a deer eating a human.” (The Telegraph)
CREDIT: JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
If you haven’t heard, the incident we’re referring to took place on a 26-acre “body farm” facility in Texas used for scientific testing. Human cadavers are left in the elements on the farm facility in order to study the process of decay and decomposition.
The pictures that have surfaced show a deer gnawing on a bone from one of the human carcasses. And yes, you could say that gnawing on a human bone is considered eating it. But the report fails to show any photos of a deer munching on human flesh like a pack of wolves, as the titles might lead you to think. In fact, the body captured in the photos was placed on the farm in July of 2014. Reports say that most of the soft tissue was consumed by vultures and other scavengers. And it wasn’t until 6 months later that a deer first showed up on camera.
The deer simply has a rib bone hanging out of the side it its mouth. Heck, it could have been playing with it for that matter.
CREDIT: JOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES
I’m calling click-bait on this one.
So don’t go thinking that the deer have begun to fight back against humans and are now eating them.
At least not yet, anyway.
