We had something grab out pekin duck, Fatty, out of the enclosure yesterday. It either jumped the ~4 foot fence or went through the hot wire on the bordering pig pens... or went straight through the back woods where we previously had a wire but removed it to do some work.
She was bitten twice, once around her neck, and again around her back. The puncture wound on her breast was deep enough that it went straight through into her thoracic cavity, and she was covered in blood clots from her heart. Death was inevitable, but I didn't notice how deep the front wound was until after.
Now, whatever got her grabbed her from the enclosure and ran off into the woods with her. But for some reason, it didn't get far - Fatty was a big, heavy duck. Whatever grabbed her may have had trouble carrying her. She was also putting up a fight, judging by how the wounds had torn as though pulled on. A large dog, coyote, or bobcat would not have had trouble carrying her off though. So I'm leaning towards a fox or medium-sized dog. A small dog likely would not have been able to make such deep wounds in her breast, considering how big she was.
I am beginning to doubt it was a fox, considering that we haven't heard anything (every time we've had a fox, we've heard their howls and calls in the woods), and the fact none of the chickens or roosters were concerned. Last fox we had, our rooster, Vanilla, lost it and ran after it. No alarm call from him or any sign of him having seen a predator. We had a dog in our yard last week that tried to make a grab for our meat birds, failed, and was chased off. We hadn't seen it since... it was medium-sized, and had a long muzzle.
The ducks made alarm calls when they saw it last week - the roosters did not. We have a medium sized dog so they probably didn't see it as a threat, whereas ducks see everything new as a potential threat.
I have heard barking in the woods out back, but we do have neighbors on the next road who had dogs so didn't think anything of it.
We do have bobcats and lynx in Maine, but we've never had one in our property, and no sightings reported. I would think that a cat would have no trouble carrying off a duck. Whatever it was dropped her when it saw us and bolted, probably because it couldn't carry her. Just to clarify: it probably had her for 20 minutes before we found them. And it wasn't far into the woods, because we could still see her white feathers from the house.
So that leaves medium/small dog, a fox, maybe a big cat, raccoon, skunk... major doubts on the last two. She was just so big.
What do you guys think? Anyone had anything similar happen?
If it is a dog, let's hope it doesn't belong to anyone. If it comes back when we're around it probably won't be going home again.
She was bitten twice, once around her neck, and again around her back. The puncture wound on her breast was deep enough that it went straight through into her thoracic cavity, and she was covered in blood clots from her heart. Death was inevitable, but I didn't notice how deep the front wound was until after.
Now, whatever got her grabbed her from the enclosure and ran off into the woods with her. But for some reason, it didn't get far - Fatty was a big, heavy duck. Whatever grabbed her may have had trouble carrying her. She was also putting up a fight, judging by how the wounds had torn as though pulled on. A large dog, coyote, or bobcat would not have had trouble carrying her off though. So I'm leaning towards a fox or medium-sized dog. A small dog likely would not have been able to make such deep wounds in her breast, considering how big she was.
I am beginning to doubt it was a fox, considering that we haven't heard anything (every time we've had a fox, we've heard their howls and calls in the woods), and the fact none of the chickens or roosters were concerned. Last fox we had, our rooster, Vanilla, lost it and ran after it. No alarm call from him or any sign of him having seen a predator. We had a dog in our yard last week that tried to make a grab for our meat birds, failed, and was chased off. We hadn't seen it since... it was medium-sized, and had a long muzzle.
The ducks made alarm calls when they saw it last week - the roosters did not. We have a medium sized dog so they probably didn't see it as a threat, whereas ducks see everything new as a potential threat.
I have heard barking in the woods out back, but we do have neighbors on the next road who had dogs so didn't think anything of it.
We do have bobcats and lynx in Maine, but we've never had one in our property, and no sightings reported. I would think that a cat would have no trouble carrying off a duck. Whatever it was dropped her when it saw us and bolted, probably because it couldn't carry her. Just to clarify: it probably had her for 20 minutes before we found them. And it wasn't far into the woods, because we could still see her white feathers from the house.
So that leaves medium/small dog, a fox, maybe a big cat, raccoon, skunk... major doubts on the last two. She was just so big.
What do you guys think? Anyone had anything similar happen?
If it is a dog, let's hope it doesn't belong to anyone. If it comes back when we're around it probably won't be going home again.