The degree of decomposition seems pretty extreme. I don’t know if a buck would charge something that decomposed on his path as the smell would be completely different than in my situation, but I have personally had a buck attack a dead buck. About 10 years ago I called in a medium sized whitetail buck in a bit of a valley and shot him. I field dressed him, then hiked out to get the quad. When I quaded over the ridge, there was a larger buck battling mine on the ground but he bailed as soon as I came over the ridge. Obviously in this case, my buck was fresh and had all the smells of a true competitor.
We had the same thing happen with two bull moose a number of years ago. Couldn’t locate the downed bull one night and when we returned the next morning and found him, there was another bull showing him who’s boss.
I do also recall in some small roadside “museum” somewhere in northern Alberta or B.C. there being a set of interlocked moose antlers that had the same story behind them, some hunter shot one bull with a second head attached. I don’t recall the details as it was years ago when I was just a kid touring around with my parents but do have a recollection of that mount on the wall.
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