Murder of crows or murder by crows?
Courtesy photo Bloody crow prints dot the snow where a murder of crows stalked and ate a deer near Kellogg.
courtesy photo The deer carcass Guy Seiferd discovered after he watched a murder of crows move down the hillside near his home in Kellogg. Seiferd followed the tracks and discovered that the crows had followed and pecked at this deer for several hundred feet down the hillside.
Encounters with local wildlife have become the norm for residents in Shoshone County over the years, but this unusually long and tough winter has forced animals down off the mountains and into the communities.
Earlier this year local resident Guy Seiferd had a different kind of experience with the local wildlife, one that seemed a bit more sinister than other encounters.
Seiferd had noticed a murder of crows swarming together up near the top of the hill that is outside of his home in the Italian Gulch area of Kellogg.
He returned home a little bit later and saw them again, but closer to his house now.
Finally, around 4 p.m., after they had gotten closer and then cleared out, he decided to go investigate what they had been so interested in.
What he found left him with more questions than answers.
A deer carcass, or more aptly a deer skeleton with some fur still on it along with several hundred feet of bloody tracks, those of the deer and those of the crows who ate it.
What piqued Seiferd’s confusion was the absence of any other tracks of a larger predator (who may have wounded the deer) and that the bloody tracks only seemed to begin where the crow prints began.
“From what I could see, they pecked at it for several hundred feet of elevation drop down the hillside,” Seiferd said. “You could see where it had gotten to a point where they began pecking at it and then it fell down the embankment to a trail where it picked itself up and continued to try to get away from the crows.”
According to Barb Moore, a regional wildlife biologist with Idaho Fish and Game this situation must have had some sort of underlying issues that prompted the attack.
“Crows are not birds who actively hunt living things like a deer,” Moore said. “They are scavengers by nature, but if a deer were sick, wounded, or weak they may have picked up on that and followed it. It really is a circle of life situation.”
As mentioned before Seiferd didn’t see evidence of any prior wounds which may mean that the deer was sick and was struggling to get down the hillside in search of food or water but the crows discovered it first.
Despite what Moore said about Crows hunting other animals, there have been reports over the years of crows “mobbing” other animals or even people if they feel threatened or are exceptionally hungry, but generally if they are hungry the animals are much smaller than a full grown doe.
This long winter has proved tough for many animals as Shoshone County has seen several moose come down into the towns as well as some deer and elk and even reports of wolves.
It would be no surprise if the crows, who have grown accustomed to mild winter seasons here over the last few years are struggling as well.
Moore urged people to not feed the animals if they see them.
“People think that they are helping the animals, but it can create a dependence, or make the animals territorial, and could even help disease transmission from one animal to the other,” Moore said.