db cooper Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Ok, we've all seen or read about deer found with their antlers locked together or the elk with his rack jammed in the tree, truly sucky ways to die! What else have you seen in AZ? I have two that come to mind. In Unit 21, there is a steep- alled smallish canyon with waterholes in the bottom from rain and snow runoff. A few years back, I peered over the edge and floating in one of those pools that is so clear it looks like it is only a foot deep but in reality is really 8-10 feet deep, was a mother coyote and 2 pups. It looked like they drowned trying to drink when the water was higher and there was not an exposed bank to escape to. Another time, I saw a rabbit impaled on a stick. As far as I could tell, it jumped to get away from something and landed in the wrong spot. Wait, one more comes to mind........I was fishing on the Salt river where everyone tubes and saw a guy try to cross the river in jeans,cowboy boots, and a coors light in hand. He never made it. Let's hear'em! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
silencedmajority Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Nice thread topic! My favorite was a day I was hiking in Unit 21, rocky with a lot of cholla. I was cresting a hill when I saw a big rock squirrel standing on his hind legs on the peak of the hill watching me. He seemed startled, and jumped off to the other side. When I get to the top, I see a big ball of cholla pods shaking and rolling around! I thought I had seen the true "jumping cactus" of lore, but upon closer inspection it was the squirrel covered head to toe in cholla balls! I guess he had been so startled that he jumped off the rock and down into a mound of cholla cactus. Poor thing, I spent some time trying to pry some of those spines out of him, but some were really deep and he was having trouble breathing. I don't think I'd like to go that way. Death by cholla. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ajohunter Report post Posted March 2, 2012 A few years ago we were glassing the flats for mule deer and I spotted a jackrabbit in the open. All of a sudden a redtail hawk swooped sown from a saguaro and killed it in a huge ball of dust. That rabbit only made a small squeel before the hawk killed it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Interesting thread! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
.270 Report post Posted March 2, 2012 I saw a muley doe bite a bobcat and tree it multiple times. She didn't kill it, but she dang sure tried. Lark. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
db cooper Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Also, during a storm, I saw a flash and sparks on a power pole near my house. When I went to investigate, I found a hawk with it's chest blown out and a quail clutched in it's talon. The smell of burned feathers rivals hair, anyday! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
firstcoueswas80 Report post Posted March 2, 2012 I am not 100% sure the coyote killed the buck, but it looked like the buck was minutes away from death... When I was 12 or 13 or so (maybe older than that as I had my 12 guage with me, but not sure). My dad, a family friend, and myself were walking up a hill scouting for deer when we heard some running that was coming RIGHT at us. We turned around as a coyote chased a 80-85" buck within about 20 feet of us. It didnt even cross my mind to raise up the shotgun and shoot the coyote! To this day, one of the neatest things I have seen in the woods! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JLW Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Not death but sure would have been..... We were driving back to the motel room from launching boats for a fishing tournament at windy hill. We were between fr 486? and fr 618 ( walnut canyon enclosure) on the 188 and all of a sudden a coyote chases 3 does out onto the highway nearly running into the boat trailer in front of us! As we came to a stop the coyote latched onto one of the does' neck right in the middle of the road! I didn't have a weapon but I sure was ready to choke that coyote with my bare hands. I jumped out and started yelling at the coyote like he was a domestic dog! He finally let go but didn't want to. He looked at me and looked at the doe, she looked like she was in shock and I tried to scare him off and he took off up the hill and the doe ran across the road to meat her girlfriends and they all stopped and watched us get back into the truck. She was bleeding a bit from where the coyote had bit her on the neck but I'm sure she recovered. They all watched us drive off as if to say thanks. James 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
billrquimby Report post Posted March 2, 2012 My hunting partner and I found a whitetail buck in Texas and a mule deer doe on the North Kaibab that were both still alive after tangling a leg in the barbed wire fences they had tried to jump. We released the whitetail, but it was so exhausted it couldn't get up. When we returned an hour later it was dead where we'd left it. We ran two coyotes off the Kaibab doe when we drove up to a waterhole, and she still was bleating when we walked up to her. The coyotes had eaten on her rump and pulled out a section of her intestines. She died before we left. I also found the skeleton of a big bull elk that had been caught by a rear hoof in the top two strands of a fence on the White Mountain Apache Reservation near the Big Bonito years ago when AZGFD still managed its wildlife. The fence ran around the side of a very steep hill, and the elk had died stretched out with his rear leg five or six feet above his head. He may have starved to death there. Nature can be cruel by our standards. Bill Quimby Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
db cooper Report post Posted March 2, 2012 My hunting partner and I found a whitetail buck in Texas and a mule deer doe on the North Kaibab that were both still alive after tangling a leg in the barbed wire fences they had tried to jump. We released the whitetail, but it was so exhausted it couldn't get up. When we returned an hour later it was dead where we'd left it. We ran two coyotes off the Kaibab doe when we drove up to a waterhole, and she still was bleating when we walked up to her. The coyotes had eaten on her rump and pulled out a section of her intestines. She died before we left. I also found the skeleton of a big bull elk that had been caught by a rear hoof in the top two strands of a fence on the White Mountain Apache Reservation near the Big Bonito years ago when AZGFD still managed its wildlife. The fence ran around the side of a very steep hill, and the elk had died stretched out with his rear leg five or six feet above his head. He may have starved to death there. Nature can be cruel by our standards. Bill Quimby You got that right! Give me a bullet in the head before a long agonizing starvation death, anyday, just make sure to try to get my foot out of the wire first! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
singleshot Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Went for the head shot on a young rock sqirrel atop the wood pile at my house one day. Ended up hitting it through the mouth, broadside. It flipped and flopped and eventually drug itself under the shed. A couple of years later the dogs brought up a skeleton of a mature rock squirrel with summer teeth. (some are here some are there). Several lower teeth had grown completely through its upper jaw and one even came out of where its nose would have been. The upper teeth had done the same thing. These teeth were over an inch long and twisted and curly. I'm sure it was the squirrel who took the pellet to the face and his teeth never matched up again to keep them filed down. He had a womans nylon tangled all up in those protruding teeth and I guess he finally starved. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ShutYourLib Report post Posted March 2, 2012 Very interesting topic. Came across 3 moo cows that were crushed by a big ol' pine. Tree had been blown over from the root and hit all three of them across the back. One of them clearly lived quite a bit longer than the other two, I would guess it finally died of dehydration. While out branding many years ago we had a very thin, very weak coyote stagger straight in to where we were. It could hardly walk. As it got closer we could see the whole bottome of its jaw was just hanging straight down. Somthing had kicked or broken its jaw and it was wandering around with its mouth open and jaw hanging for who knows how long. Well he died from a bullet but he wouldnt have made it much longer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted March 2, 2012 My husband and I were out with our neighbor fishing from a boat on San Carlos Lake when we saw some bald eagles chasing an osprey around a bend in the lake. Later in the day we ended up in that cove fishing and saw a dead osprey floating in the water. I am sure it was killed by the eagles, which were likely the ones that nest near the lake. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elkaholic Report post Posted March 2, 2012 On the road to Alamo- I had stopped to get relief from a few beers and saw something interesting - a skeleton of a KIT fox caught/wedged in the center of a huge Joshua tree. I really had to look twice to see that it was a fox! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
125coues Report post Posted March 2, 2012 I found a dog in 4B that had chased something into a large hole and it looked like the hole caved in on it and smothered it to death, only thing sticking out were it' s hind legs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
