Decomposing Deer

Last year during my ecologist-in-residence at the Central Valley Elementary School we observed turkey vultures circling around what turned out to be a dead deer. During my visit this year with Mr. Petersen's class we went to check out what happened to the deer. We only found bones, mostly vertebrae and ribs along with one scapula, one femur and one humerus. Here's what I think happened to the dead deer as it decomposed and passed energy on to other organisms and returned nutrients to the environment.

The picture to the right shows a broken femur. I think the deer was hit by a car and ended up with a compound fracture of the femur. The impact of the car did not kill the deer right away and the deer was able to run up along the rock wall away from the highway. Through the action of running the sharp edges of the broken bone probably severed the femoral artery, resulting in the deer dieing.

The compound fracture would have left a gaping wound that the flies would have landed on to lay their eggs. That's why that area of the deer was more quickly consumed than the area of the upper body and head. Normally the place the flies would most likely lay eggs if there is no break in the skin would be the eyes, mouth and nose, among other open areas of the body. Notice in the picture to the left how the head area has had very little effect from fly larvae.

As the flies consumed more of the flesh of the area of the hind leg (the broken femur), that left a large opening for vultures to begin to eat the dead deer. The area shown in the picture to the right shows the affects of vultures and possibly other scavengers as they began eating the deer for food.

All of this is nature's way of recycling nutrients and passing along energy in the food chain. With the actions of the scavenger and decomposer organisms dead animals are returned to the earth and results in the continuation of life.

This kind of study and analysis is something that a terrestrial community ecologist would investigate.