White-tailed Deer love to hang out right in front of the EDC. They seem to be shedding their winter coats - we found a few clumps of deer fur along the trail!A park volunteer brought me a partial deer skeleton that he found on the other side of the reservoir. Since it still had some meat and fur on it and is a bit smelly, I put it out alongside the trail for the scavengers and decomposers to finish cleaning. The skeleton has only been there a week and already it has been discovered by carrion beetles (family Silphidae), who were working away industriously at cleaning up the remaining dried up bits of flesh from the bones. Here's a video of some of the beetles working away. There appear to be two types of carrion beetle here - all black ones, and some with orange on their heads, almost like lightening bugs. I find them fascinating, but if the thought of beetles scuttling about and munching on a dead deer grosses you out, you may not want to watch this one. Just imagine how gross it would be if they DIDN'T eat the deer though - yuck!
Thanks for stopping by! I am a park naturalist from Indiana and these are some of the strange, weird, and wonderful things I get to play with throughout the year. I am also a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in my "spare" time, and share my home with skunks, opossums, bats, and other odd beasties.
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Most of the the internet links that I've put here are to educational or park websites; however, I have no control over the content for most of them. My youtube channel has better quality versions of most of my nature video clips, but may show links to promoted videos that, again, are not under my control. Please let me know if you encounter anything inappropriate!
A park volunteer brought me a partial deer skeleton that he found on the other side of the reservoir. Since it still had some meat and fur on it and is a bit smelly, I put it out alongside the trail for the scavengers and decomposers to finish cleaning. 
The skeleton has only been there a week and already it has been discovered by carrion beetles (family Silphidae), who were working away industriously at cleaning up the remaining dried up bits of flesh from the bones.
Here's a video of some of the beetles working away. There appear to be two types of carrion beetle here - all black ones, and some with orange on their heads, almost like lightening bugs. I find them fascinating, but if the thought of beetles scuttling about and munching on a dead deer grosses you out, you may not want to watch this one. Just imagine how gross it would be if they DIDN'T eat the deer though - yuck!
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