Deer chomps human bone 'like a cigar,' Texas State researchers say

Texas State University researchers have reportedly documented a white-tailed deer gnawing on a human bone. According to the Journal of Forensic Sciences, this is the first time researchers have seen deer chewing on human bones. less Texas State University researchers have reportedly documented a white-tailed deer gnawing on a human bone. According to the Journal of Forensic Sciences, this is the first time researchers have seen deer ... more Image 1 of / 26 Caption Close Deer chomps human bone 'like a cigar,' Texas State researchers say 1 / 26 Back to Gallery

In the Journal of Forensic Sciences, Texas State University researchers have documented a first -- a white-tailed deer gnawing on a human bone.

The young deer was caught by a motion-sensor camera with a human rib bone "extending from the side of the mouth like a cigar," the authors from the Forensic Anthropology Research Facility, an outdoor decomposition lab in San Marcos, Texas, noted in the journal article.

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Researchers have seen deer chewing on other animal bones before, and even deer bones -- just not human ones.

Lauren Meckel, the lead author of the journal article and the acting coordinator of the decomposition lab, said researchers normally put cages over the bodies to keep scavengers away. But this experiment involved studying the behavior of vultures, so bodies were left unprotected. When researchers reviewed the camera footage, they spotted "raccoons and foxes and all kinds of animals" -- including the expected vultures.

Deer also set off the camera, but that was normal, she said. "What we'd seen in the past was that they would just walk by and sniff it and then walk away."

This time, though, the deer stopped and picked up a bone belonging to someone who'd died 190 days earlier. It chewed the dry bone a bit and then dropped it, she said.

"It wasn't that it was eating the flesh," she said, noting that it had already been picked over by vultures.

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But that the deer chewed it at all was notable, in that it could help investigators identify its post-mortem teeth mark patterns on human remains, she said.

More frightening, the researchers confirmed earlier findings about the behavior of vultures, including this:

"They stick their beaks into the face first – into the eyes and into the mouth," Meckel said, "and then they jump onto the torso and break some of the ribs."