Hi Jim,
It seems a lot of the posts I've read about associations between the yowie and meat usually entail the presence of dismembered or decapitated animal bodies, such as roos or birds, but none have mentioned the presence of animal carcasses showing evidence of being half-eaten.
Is it that the yowie only kills other animals out of fun or boredom? And if so, is it that the hairy man doesn't want to eat them, and survives on a vegetarian diet?
Well, I reckon our Yowies would be mad to not eat meat. It's high kilojoule food, with lots of fat, protein and amino acids, valuable for building muscle. Unfortunately, there are a number of other meat eating creatures roaming the bush (namely dingoes, feral cats, foxes, domestic dogs gone wild, quolls etc. ) that actively hunt other animals to eat them. Finding a carcase it would be very difficult to guess what initially killed the animal, as by then, a lot of flesh may have been consumed, not only by the killing animal, but by the associated scavengers that clean up after a kill (feral pigs are great at this), carrion eating birds and of course, the humble maggot and beetle brigade.
Unless you are trained in natural history and have skill in forensic examination of carcases, it might prove difficult to say a Yowie killed something or another animal did, or in fact that the animal may have died naturally and been scavenged after death. We don't know if all Yowies only eat creatures they have killed themselves, or if they are willing to scavenge carrion, though there have been sightings of Yowie-like creatures/hairy bipeds feeding off road kills. It might vary between individuals, depending on what the local environment provides in the way of food. I've read in this forum that in areas supposed to be inhabited by Yowies, that the number of animals in the area is very low, indicating that they may be eating themselves out of house and home. In this case, they may utilise roadkills or carrion to make up the shortfall in their diet.
Finding bits and pieces of a carcase scattered widely around it's final resting place is probably no real indication that the animal was killed by a Yowie - lots of animals try to drag bits away to eat in peace. A half-eaten carcase would be a waste, and to my way of thinking, Yowies are supposed to be pretty darn strong, and I would imagine that a Yowie that had made a successful kill might prefer to pick up and carry away a kill, to enjoy a bit later at his leisure. He or she may also have a family to feed, and if he is the 'breadwinner' so to speak, this would be a logical assumption to make (humans do it, and many other animals provide for mates and young by bringing food back to the home den or whatever). In the US, Sasquatch/Bigfoot have been seen carrying carcases of food animals, and if memory serves me correctly, there have been sightings of Yowies carrying roos or wallabies.
In summary, if you don't want to read the Tolstoy version above:
If it's a half eaten carcase, it's probably the result of an animal kill. Foxes, cats and sometimes dogs will attempt to cover the carcase or drag it into a bush if it's convenient, but this is not always the case. Big Cats (e.g. Leopards, etc) are well known to stash carcases up trees to keep it away from other scavengers. It makes sense that a Yowie might do the same, rather than leave a carcase rotting on the ground.
I don't know about Yowies killing for fun: they seem to be relatively cautious about coming up to human habitations to raid chook houses etc and wouldn't want to hang around in that kind of environment just to kill the whole lot of birds for fun. Also, they probably wouldn't get the chance to come across a bunch of animals that are bunched together unable to escape, though in the case of a pen full of sheep or cattle, this might make a hunt a bit easier for them, before they make off to the safety of the bush. I like to think a Yowie has the sense to not be wasteful of a valued food source!
Dogs kill for fun, I've seen it myself. Quolls also are supposed to kill numbers of birds if they can get into your chook house, but then, a domestic cat can also do the same.
Great question, by the way.
Kind regards,
Shazz