We've donated a few hogs to the Texas Buzzard and Coyote Conservation Society over the years.

Most are accepted and dispensed of by natural manner.

There have been a few over the years that nothing touches, 2 , 3 weeks go by and the decay is a slow process.

In laymen's terms who can give a plausible explanation to this event.

I figured the scavengers would eat ANYTHING...

I dumped around 20 pigs this year at least and I never saw a buzzard near our bone pile. Of course we had deer there as well. I figured with hunting season in full swing there was plenty of dead stuff and they just never made it to where we were. Might be the same thing, just other food sources.

Good Point Rex - in our case the buzzards are circling just making a conscious decision to not land and we're covered up in yotes...

Do you cut them open? slitting the stomach or cutting through the skin on the back will make it easier for scavengers.

Nope leave em lay as nature intended , your not implying that I light a candle and leave silverware for them are you ?!?!?

Joking of course

^^^^^^^^^ This.

I am uncertain as to why it makes a carcass more attractive, but in my experience it does make a difference.

Coyotes (under normal circumstances)....will want the carcass only while it is still fairly fresh. Buzzards will eat it in any state of decomposition. Coyotes will return and consume the bones once they are stripped of flesh.

In my part of Deep East Texas....there will be no trace of the hog (save for hair and hooves) within 48 hours (often times less if a small hog).

Have often wondered the same. We have had a 200 lb boar all but disappear over night and had a smaller ones sit for weeks untouched. We have a healthy yote/buzzard/karakara population.

Somone dumped a big hog in the middle of our county road, its a small little traveled gravel/sand road. The hog sat there fore months till someone moved it, nothing ate it.

Also dump our coyotes in the same spot nothing eats the yotes ever. One time I skinned one to keep the hide and they ate the skinned yote like candy!

Well, maybe not the candle . . . but remember — in the upscale restaurant business, presentation is everything!
After skinning a few hogs I quickly understood why footballs are made from pigskin. It's tough! Giving the predators an opening will speed up their work.

Yup, cutting them open is a big help. We see times during the winter (deer season) when the buzzards have moved south and even a skinned deer carcass will go untouched.

Nature always keeps up guessing.

My neighbor bought some cows from Kansas once. A few of them died within a couple days. Nothing touched those cows. Buzzards or yotes. We just guessed they had some type of infection that the scavengers know not to eat.

The old momma cows that die naturally usually don't last more than a couple days.

Yotes and coons rarely seem to get touched by buzzards either.

Rabbits seem to be the same. I've seen them gone overnight. I have also seen them sit for a couple of weeks. One night we shot about 10 jack rabbits. I piled them up under a feeder so I could get pictures. Those things sat there for about 2 weeks before a lone hog finally scattered them out. Won't do that again. gagged the whole time I had to fill that feeder.

The Buzzards and yotes get a long just fine on my lease f

I have noticed that buzzards have a much harder time getting into hogs when they have to go through the skin. The go for the eyes and anus first, then usually try to work an abdominal side or belly where there is no shielding. Still, the hide can be tough. So you can speed up their work by slicing open the hog.