How Many Nights Can A Buried Gut Pile Last?

bigbendmarine

5 year old buck +
Sure the answer varies a bit, but I was surprised by the answer I got... especially with North FL daytime temps hitting the mid-70s to 80s during the time period I captured the video.

Won't ramble too much on the subject, as the intro portion of the video tells the tale. I'll just add three quick notes:

1) Don't think I want to eat possum any time soon!
2) REALLY wanted to use the song "Bella Notte" from the movie "Lady and the Tramp" for background music, but worried Disney wouldn't smile at the use
3) Not going to lie, pulling cards from the camera got tougher by the day. Without giving a spoiler on how many nights the site had visitors, will just say the site was smelling pretty darn ripe by day 3!

 
Haha, what a feast. Some pretty strong stomachs there.
 
over the yrs I have placed trail camera's over gut piles, NOT even buried one's, just sitting on the ground,
from my experience doing this dozens of times, NOTHING would eat things, minus a few birds, yet I'd get pictures of things walking PAST the piles, not even looking at them!
or not untill they got really funky smelling, which pending weather, many times took several weeks or more.

I almost think the more they smell the more critters enjoy eating them

another example of rotting smells? HAHA!
about 20 yrs ago, a farmer that leased a farm I managed decided to plant potato's, BUT his buyer would only take potato's ONE size, they couldn;t too big or too small!
so all the others he decided to dump in a section of the woods behind the main field, about 10 tri axle loads he dumped maybe 200 ton or so??
any how, we all figured critters would eat things and or break down over time
well, almost NOTHING went near them potato's until they turned dark black and got so Funky, you wouldn;t go withijn a 100 yards near before wanting to turn back they also started breaking down into a mushy gooey material,

THEN like a light switch happened, deer started eating them, bears showed up in numbers and all sorts o critters started eating them
it was amazing HOW fast they disappeared after they started eating things?

SO, from my dealings, the more things smell the more desirable they seem to be to wildlife!
which almost seems wrong, due to how well there noses are, couldn't imagine standing near that pile, with a nose 10-20 times better than mine> I'd never be able to do LOL
 
Lest anyone wonder why I buried them in the first place, actually has a bit to do with "habitat-talk!"

The spot I buried them is a spot I've regularly burned limbs over the years resulting in a bit of a bio-char spot.

After noticing stuff at the spot grows about twice the height of surrounding vegetation, I started taking soil from the spot for planting projects. To help "charge" the soil there / keep it rich, I've also taken compost to the spot as well as buried guts there in the past. Just never had so many guts to bury at one time as with the seemingly constant hog harvests.

Admittedly buried the guts a bit shallower than I have in the past, thus leading to the resulting digging.... and video.
 
My dad shot a pig a couple of years ago in south Louisiana. He shot it near his house so he drug it back into the woods. I visited a week later and smelled the pig before I saw it. Nothing had touched it. Something eventually tore into it, but it took a while before any scavengers started scavenging.
 
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