A large pile of dead coyotes was discovered behind a subdivision in a North Carolina city, and a wildlife officer thinks they were brought from a different location after a hunt.

North Carolina wildlife enforcement officer Sampson Parker said Monday that 73 carcasses were piled in a heap on the ground next to a ditch which leads to a stream in Charlotte. Two residents found them last Thursday on the site of an old wastewater treatment plant. The city bought the property and locked it up.

Mecklenburg County workers say there is no evidence the carcasses impacted the water.

Parker says an investigation shows someone brought the coyotes from a large hunt. He says the coyotes should have been taken to a landfill.

The story was first reported by WBTV .