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Monday, February 6, 2017

The dance among the lion and scavengers at an elk carcass

I'm sure that some of you remember the story of the mountain lion who killed a cow elk on my friend's land that I talked about in two posts (Post 1 and Post 2). I set up trail cameras all around the carcass to capture footage of the lion and the scavengers who ate every last bit of the elk.

I haven't had a chance to tell you about the scavengers who moved in in the mid-day hours as well as after the lion abandoned the carcass on December 17. They included magpies, ravens, a golden eagle, and coyotes. The coyotes even howled occasionally!

I put footage of the scavengers together into a video that I thought that you might enjoy seeing. I think that a fascinating aspect of it is the interactions among the scavengers and the lion.

It was interesting to see how worried the coyotes were when they dared to go near the carcass during the phase when the lion was still nearby. The first coyote clip shows an example of that behavior. No doubt, the lion would kill a coyote he found the coyote eating his hard-earned elk meat.

I also enjoyed watching the magpies and ravens brazenly continue to eat while the coyote or golden eagle was on the carcass. Seeing a Golden Eagle was really a treat!

Then, in the last clip, I loved watching and hearing the coyote howling while at the carcass!

You can watch the short video here or at Youtube.

21 comments:

  1. this is beyond amazing to me, everyone has a place at the table. and my favorite part other than the gorgeous face of the cat, is the howling. thanks for sharing.

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  2. Wow! What is hanging down from the mountain lion?

    Monty, Harlow, and Ramble

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    1. I've asked others that question, and the best guess is an umbilical hernia - so there might even be some intestines in that pouch. I do know that this lion has been alive and well with that pouch hanging down for at least a year.

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  3. What a great video. We loved seeing all the different kinds of animals using the elk. Those magpies sure are brave.

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  4. What a great video. It's a feast!
    Lily & Edward

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  5. Just fabulous photography! Seeing shots like this is just wonderful. Do the lights at night bother the cats? Or are they used to them?

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    1. Thanks for the comment!!! The cams use infrared lighting for night photography. If you or I stood in front of the cams, we wouldn't see the lights/flashes at all. It's the same for the wildlife - the cams' "flashes" are invisible to them. The downside to infrared flashes is that the night photos are black and white but I think that's a fine tradeoff because the infrared light doesn't scare the animals.

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  6. Death of any animal in the wild is sad, but for this one, he has provided much needed food for so many, and to see them together, eating, I realise it is a hard life for them all. His face in the first photo, what a magnificent fellow. And howling coyotes, maybe telling the rest of the pack to come and eat as well. A lot of video editing, thank you SOO much for sharing this with us.

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  7. Great video, thanks! Good to see all of the animal was used....by a variety of other animals.

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  8. This was awesome, thanks so much for sharing. Please stop by my blog to read about my farm life as a Missouri Farm Girl

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  9. Just amazing. What cool stuff you get with those cameras!

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  10. How we enjoyed that video!!! The volume was turned up fully and you should have seen Misty listening and cocking her head to all the sounds, but most especially when the coyotes let out their howls.

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    1. I'm so jealous. R will howl only when the coyotes are outside our windows (at 3 AM) but not with a recording. Can you record Misty sometime? I'd love to see/hear it!

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  11. Great video. I started winning and a little howl came out of me when I heard the coyotes.
    Blessings,
    Buddy

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    1. R will howl when he hears the coyotes outside our windows but not when he hears a recording of them. I'd love to see a video of Buddy howling. Try Googling "Coyote Pack Howl", and you'll get one of my videos that is entirely howling. I'd love to hear what Buddy does!!!!

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  12. That is an amazing video. (Do they pay you for the advertising they put up on your video's) They should

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    1. They do pay us. I'm sorry about the ads. One of my videos has 1.7 million views so it's worth it to me to have the ads, even though I know that they're an eyesore to you. Sorry, sorry, sorry!

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  13. What pawesome footage :) Milo & Jet

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  14. Nature at it's best. We have a rather large coyote pack here. We can hear adults, and pups both. Torrey goes nuts barking and howling.

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  15. How wonderful seeing how no part of the elk is wasted!! Thanks so much for putting this together!!

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