Ive seen sheep and goats chew bones from old kills, maybe to get calcium or salt, i dunno. Havent seen an Axis actively eat from a carcass, but if times are hard......I've shot deer that were eating from the gut pile of a previous field dress. Not sure what they were eating, maybe undigested grain, IDK, but I've done it at least twice I can remember.
Black vultures are amazing, and so nasty looking. Weekend bicycling I see them out early in the morning. They turn road kill into bones before noon.About a dozen black vultures on my game cam.
I have shot several deer close to a gut pile. I also had a gut pile disappear in 2 hours. Looked like coyotes. Then another time I had a bald eagle on a pile that was less than 2 hours old.Just yesterday I was watching a deer hunting video from 2020 in Illinois I think. The man shot a doe and several minutes later a nice 10 point came around and got within 15 foot of her, then a gnarly 12 point came in circled around her and he shot him when he stuck his nose in her butt. I always thought that the smell of blood would make a deer bolt, evidently not.
We do have turkey vultures here also. Hueston Woods State Park is just down the road from us. It harbors both black and turkey vultures. And a few bald eagles. Black vultures are smaller than turkey vultures but a lot more aggressive. The black vultures will run the turkey vultures away from carrion. Never have I seen both together.
Farmers around here are not fond of black vultures. They are very well known for killing newborn calves, piglets, and lambs. Black vultures outnumber the turkey vultures here.
. . . . I always thought that the smell of blood would make a deer bolt, evidently not.
My buddy always used to tell
me that skunk musk would run the deer
off.
Back in the 80s, "Skunk Scent" was a very popular cover scent. Stunk so bad, even in the bottle, most Sporting Goods Stores kept it in a refrigerator or the back room. My wife made me keep mine in the garage. Only used a very small amount on a cotton ball in a film canister as it was almost impossible to handle it without getting the smell on you. Can't tell you how many deer I shot while using it. Like any other scent tho, the deer became cautious of it if it was over used. Your buddy may have experienced that scenario.
................ UPDATE....... This year for sure. Filled my antlerless tag this afternoon at the same place. We dragged it down and I gutted it in the same spot. Trail cam is now set up pointed at the gut pile with FRESH batteries in it. Stay tuned; I hope to get some interesting trail cam pix E-mailed to me soon.Very interesting thread. Thanks for putting those photos up. Last year my buddy shot a big doe when we were hunting at his brothers place. Gutted it 25 yards from the house and his brother placed a trail cam at the gut pile to see the scavengers. We eagerly waited for the pix for almost a week until his brother told us the batteries went dead on the trail cam before he got anything. Now that I think of it; we did have some low temps that week. Oh, well; maybe this year.