# patches of deer hair



## craddock (Dec 4, 2019)

I always hunt my fathers place in West Virginia and did again this year but with some strange findings. We always would see 20 to 40 deer a day on this 400 acres but this year we rarely saw more than 2 or 3 a day. Our trail cameras showed there were deer early in the summer but not so much now. What we found were patches of deer hair approx. 3 to 4 foot around. There was a lot of hair but no hide, bones or meat just hair. We found 7 or 8 places like this. The ground wasn't tore up just piles of hair. The only thing that has changed that we know of is that we have a lot of pictures of black bear for the first time this year. Does anyone have an idea what might be happening?


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## MechanicMatt (Dec 4, 2019)

Not a clue, but I’m definitely interested in what you do find.... hopefully someone else chimes in. I was gonna guess ‘yotes but you said no bones.


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## stillhunter (Dec 4, 2019)

Are they bedding areas? maybe hair left from shedding their winter coats this spring?


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## Leeroy (Dec 4, 2019)

Aren't 'yotes and wolves known for that descriptions


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## MechanicMatt (Dec 4, 2019)

Dunno, when the coyotes get them here in NY, you find the bones and not much else...


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## Deleted member 117362 (Dec 4, 2019)

Must have wild pigs, they eat everything.


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## SuperDuty04 (Dec 5, 2019)

It'll look like this when a carcass has been fed on or even just died and left to rot. Scavengers will drag the bones off and all that remains in lots of hair on the ground. I've seen this a lot with coyotes preying on deer. I would assume it'd be the same with bear.


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## buzz sawyer (Dec 5, 2019)

I've seen a lot fewer deer in the past couple years up here near Wheeling but no patches as described.


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## craddock (Dec 5, 2019)

We just found the patches of hair in the last two weeks so I think shedding is out. I wish that I would have taken pictures but dummy me didn't think to. There is enough hair the make a blanket. I would think that the deer would be nearly bald if it lost this much hair. As for bones I thought that I should find a rib cage or something but there is nothing. Just a pile of deer hair. Three of the piles are within 100 yards of each other in the edge of the pasture. We have had coyotes for years but this is the first time of this.


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## alleyyooper (Dec 7, 2019)

I had a road kill deer last spring I took to the back of the place with the loader and dumped. 3 weeks later I was in the area and all that was left was patches of hair. So I started a cicular search and came up on the bones about 75 yards away in some thick brush. Lot of chew marks on them. I believe coytoes and pussons were eatting in the carass and most likely coyote drug it closer to the den for pups.

I have a friend lives in WV and this year has been shooting a lot of coyotes and not seeing the nice bucks he always gets.


 Al


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## rarefish383 (Dec 16, 2019)

I have property in Hardy County. When they started letting people take doe, years ago, we saw the overall population of deer go down, but the bucks got bigger with better racks. This spring we had lots of deer, then everything dried up. Streams I have never seen go dry were dry as a bone. The deer left with the water. From late June till October no one saw any deer. About two weeks before fire arm opener it started raining every other day of so. All the deer came back. We have 150 acres, our neighbors that have a sheep operation have 280 acres. The Yotes are rough on their sheep. But, they say they can't take down a healthy mature deer. Fawns and sickly ones yes. Also, last year, the two neighbors on both sides of us shot 7 Yotes. Couple weeks ago, deer hunting, my cousin and his guys found some odd poop they didn't recognize and thought it may be bear poop. The sheep farmer took a sample home. His wife is a wildlife biologist. She said the poop was from a Yote and was packed with cow hair, probably feeding on a dead cow. The Yotes around our place are very singular animals, one or two, not big packs. If there was anything like your big patches of hair, I'm sure they would have told us. I'll call and ask if they have ever seen that. I'll call my cousin and ask if he has ever seen it.


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## Big Red Oaks 4 me (Dec 16, 2019)

Here in Virginia, we are not seeing deer, either, and back in the summer, I also had some nice bucks on trail cameras. I’m seeing a lot of buzzard crap around my swamp. I’m thinking a EHD outbreak, maybe.


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## craddock (Dec 17, 2019)

rarefish383 said:


> I have property in Hardy County. When they started letting people take doe, years ago, we saw the overall population of deer go down, but the bucks got bigger with better racks. This spring we had lots of deer, then everything dried up. Streams I have never seen go dry were dry as a bone. The deer left with the water. From late June till October no one saw any deer. About two weeks before fire arm opener it started raining every other day of so. All the deer came back. We have 150 acres, our neighbors that have a sheep operation have 280 acres. The Yotes are rough on their sheep. But, they say they can't take down a healthy mature deer. Fawns and sickly ones yes. Also, last year, the two neighbors on both sides of us shot 7 Yotes. Couple weeks ago, deer hunting, my cousin and his guys found some odd poop they didn't recognize and thought it may be bear poop. The sheep farmer took a sample home. His wife is a wildlife biologist. She said the poop was from a Yote and was packed with cow hair, probably feeding on a dead cow. The Yotes around our place are very singular animals, one or two, not big packs. If there was anything like your big patches of hair, I'm sure they would have told us. I'll call and ask if they have ever seen that. I'll call my cousin and ask if he has ever seen it.


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## craddock (Dec 17, 2019)

I have a couple of carcasses that have been laying in the woods for a month here at home in Ohio and there is the back bone, head and the hide with hair everywhere but there is still the rest of it there. In WVa there is just hair in a 3 x4 area. No hide no head rib cage nothing but hair. The coyotes left the hide and backbone and head so this is why I didn't think that it was coyotes. I just don't know. I will say that there isn't no where the deer that is usually there and this is on 750 acres.


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## craddock (Dec 17, 2019)

Big Red Oaks 4 me said:


> Here in Virginia, we are not seeing deer, either, and back in the summer, I also had some nice bucks on trail cameras. I’m seeing a lot of buzzard crap around my swamp. I’m thinking a EHD outbreak, maybe.


With EHD wouldn't we find heads or at least some other parts besides hair?


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## rarefish383 (Dec 17, 2019)

craddock said:


> I have a couple of carcasses that have been laying in the woods for a month here at home in Ohio and there is the back bone, head and the hide with hair everywhere but there is still the rest of it there. In WVa there is just hair in a 3 x4 area. No hide no head rib cage nothing but hair. The coyotes left the hide and backbone and head so this is why I didn't think that it was coyotes. I just don't know. I will say that there isn't no where the deer that is usually there and this is on 750 acres.


I agree, I've always seen bones, skulls, etc. Critters might move them around some, but something is left. I thought of poachers. Maybe they were skinning and gutting them, but that didn't make sense either. Why skin it, then throw it on a dirty truck. I just called my friend, but mid day, no answer.


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## Big Red Oaks 4 me (Dec 17, 2019)

Many deer that die of EHD go to the middle of swamps to die. I have not explored the dense areas of my swamp for dear remains, but plan to soon.


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