An imprint of eagle wings and talons in the snow documents a raptor that had been feeding on a deer carcass outside of Kaycee. (Justin Dodd/Wyoming Game and Fish)

Justin Dodd, a game warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, set out to investigate a collared deer mortality near Kaycee one day following a late-February snow. As he was pulling up to the scene, he said, he spotted a large eagle taking flight. 

“The eagle had been eating on the carcass a little bit,” Dodd said. 

As Dodd went about documenting the site — the collared deer was part of the Upper Powder River Mule Deer Herd Study — he came upon the eagle’s imprint in the snow, talons flanked by outstretched feathers. 

While it was unfortunate that he was there because a deer had died, the mark the eagle left in the snow “was a pretty cool scene nonetheless,” Dodd said. 

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Katie Klingsporn reports on outdoor recreation, public lands, education and general news for WyoFile. She’s been a journalist and editor covering the American West for 20 years. Her freelance work has...

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