I hadn't realized that some of them have different numbers of claws--good point!
In this case, OP already found out for sure it is a bear. The post was hiding on page 4 of the thread:
I've had similar trouble when I skim-read things :)
This thread got featured in the weekly email, so it got quite a lot of responses from people who read the first post and maybe not much more.
Since the answer was in the middle of page 4 (yup, it was a bear), I've been copying & reposting it...
I think it's fairly common for people to read new posts after their own, even if they didn't read the previous 10 pages. (I think that partly because I see people "like" posts after the one they made, which tells me they read those later posts.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher_(animal)
Member of the weasel family, males up to 8-13 pounds, according to wikipedia.
I would say maybe, except for this:
Following the feather trail and finding a family of bears at the end sounds rather conclusive to me :)
Um, be careful with that idea. I'm especially concerned about the pistol suggestion--unless it will KILL a bear, you are safer not using it at all. An injured bear, or a mother whose baby just got injured, is very dangerous.
If it was just the hardware cloth, I might think it was done by a big dog.
But I don't think it would leave scratches like those, and I think a dog probably would have made a lot more mess when killing the chickens, so probably right to suspect a bear.