About 10 months ago I found a dead deer, well, half a deer about 200 yds. from the house. . From the stomach back was missing.It wasn't really torn up too badly. Today I find another one just like It about half a mile down the road while out walking . The whole back end was gone. Something had chewed on this one a bit. Nothing from the rear of the animal was laying around. No bones, no hair, no meat. Back half was just gone. Now I live in a rural neighborhood where most have 2 to 5 acres and we have a few larger tracts around. Both of these deer were right among the houses ,in someones yard not in some brush.

We're. wondering if we have a people poaching problem or possibly do we have a large cat problem. What animals would remove the back end or could remove the back half of a small deer.

Usually a big cat is gonna try to hide what's left of the carcass and cover it with leaves or brush if possible.....

Call the Game Warden, he will figure it out.

Since you said small deer, maybe coyotes. The pic below is a buck I shot a long time ago on a morning hunt. I didn't find him that morning, but I went back out a few hours later and found him. Two coyotes were eating him and I shot one of them off of him. It's hard to see in the picture (the original was a polaroid), but the hind quarters were almost 100% gone down to the lower leg joint. This was just a few hours.

[quote=cos]Call the Game Warden, he will figure it out.[/quote

I called a Parks & Wildlife Biologist today but haven't heard back from him.

Hams are the easiest big protein source on the body. Get the most you can as quickly as you can is the plan.

Years ago I shot a big hog right at dusk. Wasn’t going to eat it and didn’t feel like dealing with it then, so I was going to move it to the bone pile in the morning. In the morning there was almost nothing left of the hog. A little bit of hide and the bones from one leg, and a big bloody spot. Don’t know what ate it. Don’t nap in my back pasture...

I've never seen a deer like that, but we've had a few unfortunate events where the hogs or 'yotes will get to a newborn calf and eat the back guts out, they eat it just like that deer looks in Grizz's picture.

Coyotes

Coyotes and I've seen pigs do that also to dead deer.

Coyotes.

I would think that if its animals there would be some meat, bones, hide, etc. left laying around. there is no part of the back of the deer left there. I am coming to think that someone is doing this.

I don’t know, but if you see any neighbors headed out at midnight during a full moon wearing funny costumes, I’d keep my dogs in the house.

Coyotes.

after 10 years It's common knowledge on my place in Dickens county that if we don't retrieve an evening kill it will be gone by morning. We have so many yotes that in just one night nothing is left from any animal we fail to find. We have lost a doe and several hogs to this phenomena. All that remains is the skin, head and legs above the knee.

Coyotes

Talked to the Biologist today. He has never seen an animal of any kind leave only the front half of any animal. Like me , he thinks that we have a 2 legged problem. Now we are wondering if this is some sort of ritual that someone is doing. I recall that cattle were being mutilated a few years ago.

All “other” options have been rejected. Sounds like you have convinced yourself of the solution. We have the makings of wild game mutilation by somewhat deranged individuals. Yeah I can buy that. We can close this one. What else we got?

Below is an example of how coyotes will leave a deer. This was taken a couple years back when one of our hunters arrowed a doe which we could not locate until the next morning.

"Talked to the Biologist today. He has never seen an animal of any kind leave only the front half of any animal." Consider speaking with someone with more experience.

Not saying that the Biologist you talked to is like this, but I have met a couple from the state that know an incredible amount about biology, but nothing about hunting. Your problem is coyotes.

^^This

Sounds like coyotes to me. Im not familiar with "big" cats, but we have a lot of bobcats and if they eat on something and dont finish they will cover it with dirt/grass etc.

We have dumped 200+ pound hogs many times on our gut pile whole un gutted only to have no trace of them in the morning. A group of coyotes will mop it up quickly.

100% coyotes. Cats cover their kills generally. And people doing rituals ain't doing no rituals with only the back end. They tend to use the head/whole animal judging by the things I've stumbled upon.

My guess would be dogs, free roaming pet or feral dogs.