Air or land predator?

[SamLockwood]

Something took one of my chickens yesterday, I'm thinking afternoon to dusk. Didn't notice her gone until I did the nightly head count and was one hen short, and didn't find the kill site until sunup.

They free range in an area with a 5' high wire fence. There's no really large gaps for something the size of a coyote to get through.

The strike zone is in a wooded area at least 20 feet from the fence line. There's a 3' circle of feathers there.

Then the there's a roughly straight trail from there that runs a shallow converging diagonal along the fence line 55 to 60 feet.

Then the trail abruptly turns right crosses the fence line, and goes another 12 or 14 feet towards the Yellow Creek and ends.

So I'm wondering if it was a large flyer (the chicken was a fully grown standard size) or a coyote was able to leap over a 5' fence as there's no gaps or any spaces big enough for one to crawl under the whole perimeter.

Or is it something else? This is North Georgia, FYI.

 

[azygous]

Bobcats can jump over a five foot fence very easily. The feathers look a lot like what I've found when a bobcat has nabbed one of my chickens. You need hot wire.

 

[Geena]

It looks like something went over the fence here

 

[Sueby]

Fox are pretty good at getting over a fence too.

 

[SamLockwood]

It looks like something went over the fence here

View attachment 3507289

That bend was probably there beforehand. I have a few spots like that on the older parts of the fence line were trees or small branches have fallen. Good eye, though.

 

[dekel18042]

Something took one of my chickens yesterday, I'm thinking afternoon to dusk. Didn't notice her gone until I did the nightly head count and was one hen short, and didn't find the kill site until sunup.

They free range in an area with a 5' high wire fence. There's no really large gaps for something the size of a coyote to get through.

The strike zone is in a wooded area at least 20 feet from the fence line. There's a 3' circle of feathers there.
View attachment 3507219
Then the there's a roughly straight trail from there that runs a shallow converging diagonal along the fence line 55 to 60 feet.

Then the trail abruptly turns right crosses the fence line, and goes another 12 or 14 feet towards the Yellow Creek and ends.
View attachment 3507228

So I'm wondering if it was a large flyer (the chicken was a fully grown standard size) or a coyote was able to leap over a 5' fence as there's no gaps or any spaces big enough for one to crawl under the whole perimeter.

Or is it something else? This is North Georgia, FYI.

I realize this is a late answer but both a coyote or bob cat can easily jump a five foot (even a six foot )fence) While a fox may not be able to jump it, he could certainly climb it.

 

[SamLockwood]

I realize this is a late answer but both a coyote or bob cat can easily jump a five foot (even a six foot )fence) While a fox may not be able to jump it, he could certainly climb it.

I'm fairly sure it was a bobcat. The local coyotes aren't very active during the day here. The guineas have caught them nosing around the fence a couple times in the morning, and they don't seem to like the racket they make (same as the local birds of prey). The only times I've lost birds to coyotes was the two guineas that got caught (well one got caught and the other one chased after it): this was after a tree-fall took out about 10 feet of fence. I know it was a coyote because I caught it running on two trail-cameras carrying its victim.

I spotted a bobcat a couple times at night on trail cameras, and after the first attack I caught it again mid-day. I put the flock on lockdown for a week, then staggered the release times thinking that the flock has a pretty routine pattern and changing the time of day they get let out would make it more difficult to set up an attack. During that time I caught the 'cat once more on the trail cameras: late afternoon with a dead squirrel in its mouth.

I tried to hunt it down and I spent a lot of time exploring the west end of the property trying to find its lair and found two locations, both on the southwest corner that would make likely lairs or crossover points (there's streams that border the south & west ends of the property). Both places smelled strongly of cat urine, and one had this weird hollowed out tree that was big enough to make a den.

I even set up a dawn ambush with a blind and a live chicken in a cage to bait it, but to no avail.

I never did actually put eyes on it, but I think I heard it a couple of times. In any case I think either me stomping around its hunting grounds or the roving coyote packs drove it off, or maybe one of the neighbors shot it. In any case I stopped finding tracks or trail-cam images of it shortly after the last photo, roughly two weeks after the lockdown started. One thing I think confirms it is my mother's semi-feral housecat refused to go outside during that time. This is unusual for her as spring through early fall she stays outside all day and night.

In any case I haven't lost any birds to predators since then this year, even with the weekly probes by the local birds of prey.