This past summer we had a fantastic crop of many kinds of mushrooms. One of the most spectacular species was  Caesar’s Mushroom (Amanita caesarea). In the 20 years we have lived at our present home, we have only occasionally seen one or two of these. This year there were hundreds. This species (or very similar species) is widespread. It was supposedly relished by Roman emperors, hence the common name.

However, something was obviously eating our mushrooms, since very few reached maturity. I suspected squirrels or deer, since we have a good supply of both. So I set up my game camera on some newly emerged mushrooms. This camera is triggered by motion and takes a series of photographs. It soon became obvious which creature was eating the mushrooms.

Deer takes an interest in the mushrooms

Junior joins in. Note that one clump of mushrooms is already gone

All the mushrooms have been eaten