My Strange Trail Camera pic

Every year I put up my trail cameras in search of the Big Buck, I always hunt in the same area. I decided last week, to go and check my trail cameras. I went through all the pics, and didnt see anything out of the ordinary, just the normal families of Doe and the young following. It wasnt until last night when my wife was looking through them, that we made a weird discovery.
I guess I better tell you my bizarre hunting experience first, to set up why I find this picture so puzzling. It was late in the Hunting season last year, around the end of December. I was with a friend of mine, and we were watching some deer make there way through a field and into our direction. We were pirched up on some high ground with the Quachita National Forest behind and to our left. My friend was looking through his scope trying to make out how big the Deer were. The Deer were acting very scared, almost like they were being stalked, but not by us. All of a sudden this HUGE black animal jumped out of the tall dry grass, took one giant leap, cleared a small rocky road in the field and then just disappeared, we searched and searched for this animal the second it made it across the road, but couldnt see anything, no movement in the tall grass, very very strange. I still wonder about that animal everytime I go there. The animal looked like a huge mountain lion, but almost a Dog like face. It was very big, black, a long furry tail, pointy ears, hair like a German sherpard, but extremely big. If I had to put a weight on this thing, I would say twice the size of my Golden Retreiver, and he weighs 100 pounds. The same day I checked my trail camera, I was with the same friend and we were setting our scopes. We had just set up, and fired the first round, but just when the gun fired. Something came out of this little pine tree. It made the entire tree, bend from the top to the bottom. Just like the winter before, we only saw something very big and black, We both looked at eachother, and asked if each had seen that. We agreed that it must have been a Bear or something, although we have never seen Bear tracks there. And then I found this picture on my trail camera,


at first I thought it was two deer hitting antlers, but usually deer will have their heads down and body facing foward, with all fours on the ground, this picture shows a deer very startled, both its back legs are off the ground, as if it got spooked and is trying to run, the animal attacking, is hard to see, but from what I can tell, is definetly attacking, with what looks to be a front leg, or claw coming straight forward at the deer. I tried to change up the colors in order to get a better result, but cant see very much else, except for some pointy ears and an almost cat like attack stance. Very weird, was just wondering if anyone knows what the heck this is. I know we have mountain lions and Bobcats. Bobcats are usually not very big, and dont have a long bushy tail, So Im a bit stumped by what I see. I will have to watch myself nxt time im down there, In the wild, ive entered there chess game.

Damn man, need to get a better trailcam. That pic looks like its from late 90's tech

reply to post by Glassbender777


Deer do buffet each other...



I think it's just a buffet before an antler lock.

It is two deer with their heads down. Put it in photoshop and mess with the contrast, curves and they are clear as day.

Il upload a pic in a moment

I see a dear on the left, standing up to reach leaves on the lower branches, or leaping to the left. The deer on the right is just walking to the right. Not sure if I see it correctly.

EDIT: in your highlight I see two deer at eachother's throats.


I also don't see the tails up. No danger?

dbl pos

reply to post by loves a conspiricy


ha, yep youre right..gj.
They look like kangaroos though

The deer on the far right in unfazed, whilst walking towards the other deer/alien/bigfoot etc.
Deers are pretty jittery, so i doubt one would walk towards another whilst its being attacked by a wild cat/bigfoot/alien etc.

The two on the right appear to be deer too. I cant work out if the one on the right is reaching up to a branch, or has its head down, the quality is to bad. The other one is either running to the left, so only its back and legs are showing, or is also feeding, but due to the lack of clarity appears to look like a cat of sorts. It could be standing at a weird angle to the camera, which makes it appear to not look like a deer.

Jackalope!


Very rare catch indeed

reply to post by SLAYER69


Jackalope for the WIN!

Yet another star for Slayer69.

reply to post by thesungod


This thread should be moved to the "Above Top Secret" forum.
beezzer get's religious whenever Jackalopes are mentioned

deer stand on their rear legs and swat each other with the front legs, this is very common mating practice between rival bucks.

Ya I thought it was 2 deer also, its actually a really good trail camera, but because its transitioning from night to daylight, I dont think the infared knew what to do. So its a crappy shot. sorry

If that deer was being attacked by a predator, wouldn't the 3rd one bolt away rather than just stand there? I see 2 deer-shaped animals standing on their back legs towards each other as deer do when they fight, so that is probably what is happening in this picture.

Well yes the deer did bolt, I have trail camera set to take a pic every 30 seconds after the sensor has gone off, on the other pics, the deer were gone, only 30 seconds after this, when I went to get the trail camera, the ground had been really messed up just to the left of this shot, I didnt think anything of it, because i hadnt seen this pic, until yesterday

that's a big cat....female....not a bobcat....it's the same size as the ones we have here in Texas....their black....and still unidentified, although they are very close to a jaguarundi.....
these black cats have the head of a dog, which makes them a mystery....here around Dallas, we have reports of them going back for 70 years and I have seen them twice.once from 30 feet in 1969 near the 17th hole at las colinas country club in the trinity river bottoms and once near lake Lavon on the north end....they are smaller than a cougar and bigger than a bobcat.....80-90 pounders. they have a cougar tail, is the give-away that they are not a canine.

reply to post by GBP/JPY


Yes that is excatly what I saw last hunting season, and I really do think its a big cat, the front leg is completly stretched out, I know a lot of people think its 2 deer, but I did mess with the contrast, and if you change them the wrong way, you get the background mixing with the foreground, and thats where you get the pic like highlighted above, I zoomed way way in, and I can actually make out pointy ears on the other animal.

I tend to go with the deer fighting (this is during rut?) or possibly playing as the other deer seems unconcerned. There are stories of Jaguars (which can be black) being seen in the South/Southwestern US. A cougar is not entirely out of question either.