I seen this happen to a farmers cow once when deer hunting.
His pasture has a bush lot in it and when he went to bring them back to the farm in late fall he said he had lost one.
While deer hunting in his bush I found the cow with it's head inbetween 2 trees.
I guess it went to rub it's neck inbetween the trees and couldn't get it's head out. All it had to do was raise it's head up the way it put it in there but when an animal gets caught like that they panic and struggle until they die.
Probably a rare occurance, but a good sharp broadhead through both lungs would have been a lot quicker. It's a shame most animal rights activists can't see how cruel "natural" deaths can be sometimes.
My friend found a fox on his property that had got one of its forelegs stuck between two trees. It was dead, but the fox had started the gnaw its own leg off.
While driving in search of great grey owls, I noticed something in a tree. Thinking it was an owl we pulled over. Upon closer inspection it turned out to be a raccoon. It was dead. It must have slipped on some icy bark, fell and got its head wedged in the fork of the tree.
Once I came across a grouse that appeared to have died as a result of flying into a tree. It was in some real thick stuff, no way one could shoot. It was piled up at the tree base.
Trees are deadly!!!
You can take the man out of the woods but you can't take the woods out of the man.
"Celebrate your harvest with a Bloodtrail Ale(tm)!!"
"It CAN Be Done!"
I need a deer trap like that. Note to self, check it every day. Sad yes but I think this is natures way. At least he was food for some of the other forest critters.