Determining How Fresh A Kill Is?

[ChadCab]

During the last week of the Colorado 2016 Elk archery season, I came across a bull elk skeleton. All the quarters had been removed and the skull plate sawed out to remove the antlers. The land I hunt is public land so I'm not surprised someone else was in the same area. However, I am curious how fresh the kill was. The spine was still attached to the head, but everything else was picked clean down to the bone with only small traces of hide. I want to know if the animal was killed earlier this season or late last rifle season. I know scavenger animals go to town on the carcasses once they are dead, but how long does it take for a bull elk to be fully eaten/ picked clean by other wildlife?

 

[mtmander]

If killed 'late last rifle season' it will be fully eaten , maybe something dried in the bone joints

 

[Elkmagnet]

I always figured if it's bleached white it's at least a year old if the bones are cracking then longer depending.

 

[glass eye]

Watched a native Alaskan bone out a sea lion and two days later the foxes finished it. Pics are 2 days apart.

 

[one ate E grain]

I look for the same bones year after year to try to get an idea of what carcasses look like over time. It seems like by two years the vertebrate are apart and the softer rib parts are eaten by rodents. If within the past couple months bones look fresh, often you can smell the elk itself not the guts but the smell off the hide. I found one a cat had gotten that was about 2 months old and quite a bit was left uneaten, especially on the underside. I think it had been killed very early spring and I found it mid May. I couldn't figure why the coyotes and ravens hadn't cleaned it off.


Steep terrain above.

 

[RobG]

They last longer than you would think. These were taken one year after being shot.







This is 2 or 3 years after being shot (I remember the elk was shot by someone else, just not the exact year!).




These are forested areas SW of Bozeman. If they were in the direct sunlight they would probably break down faster.

 

[James Riley]

I have occasionally found stuff that gets left alone (relatively). Makes me wonder if the scavengers know something we don't know. Of course insects and bacteria don't care. They will eat anything from the inside out.

It also depends on location and how moist it is. I find stuff disappears faster in warm, moist shady conditions, lasting longer in cold, dry, sunny conditions. There can be two years difference in appearance.

Off topic: If you buy an old bathtub at a junk yard, fill it with water and place a dried up old bull elk skull you found in it to soak for weeks to soften and clean, then for crying out loud wear gloves and put some bleach in the water before you start cutting. Otherwise you find these strange blue and red lines running up your veins from your hands toward your heart. And if you are that dumb, and the doctor fixes you up, and you go do it all over again, don't expect your wife to be happy or think you are a genius. Or don't wonder why the doctor rolls his eyes.

On the other hand:

 

[James Riley]

This guy was estimate at least three years dead but I found him located on a south facing dry cliff bench in the Owhyee Desert inaccessible to anything except birds:



This guy was two years dead and while I mounted him, I did not clean him:



I found another one not far from him and he was only one year dead, was picked clean but still had his nasals and the sinus. They were both at the bottom of cliff's and in the shade. It was slightly more moist there.

 

[ChadCab]

Rob, the first set of pictures looks pretty much like the skeleton I found. I believe the skeleton must have come from last year's rifle season rather than this year's archery season. Thank you for the response.

 

[Elkwhisper]

One of my hunting buddies shot this deer last November.... unfortunately it wasn't recovered at the time. It ate at him all year and when we were back in the same area this September we grid searched the area and found him. This was in a very exposed area, but would be less than one year.

 

[vanish]

This year, I found a cow elk on the second weekend of the season that someone had failed to recover on the first weekend. It was already done to hair and bones with a minimum of flesh left.