Are these fox or cat prints?

[goldfinches]

I'm sorry the pictures aren't easy to see, we have such sandy soil. I tried to edit them and didn't fare any better.

This animal has taken two full-grown roosters, a buff orpington hen, another, slightly smaller hen and a serama. We do have a cat who doesn't belong to anyone who roams, and I suspect her of taking chicks in the past, but could she get a full grown chicken? She's average size.

I suspect a fox. We live near a forest, and it could have also been a bald eagle.

But, this animal has dug under the fence into the run. I saw it one morning chasing a rooster. It was hard to see, but I saw something either fox or cat sized, gray, long and low, maybe 2.5 feet long and not as tall as the rooster it was chasing.

Here are the pictures. I think it has 4 toes.

 

[TheChickenMomma]

" It could have been a bald eagle"

I find that amusing , considering I live no where near bald eagle territory...

Anyway, to your point! It looks like a cat print to me!

I think cats are very well capable of taking down chickens (maybe just for the fun of it) and your roaming cat sounds like the culprit.

 

[Percheron chick]

Fox do not have retractable nails so from what I can tell it is not in the dog family and would have to be some type of cat. I don't believe a kitty cat could haul off a 7# rooster or dig under a fence. Do you have bobcats? Did they all go missing the same night?

 

[gander007]

Oh wow that is some nice soft sand you have ...

I have cat and fox and been reducing the
population over the years but most of the time
you will see drag marks and last spring I followed
a set of drag marks for several miles and then
came across Federal Lands so that ended
that but over the next year I would up expending
over a box of shoot gun shells and my losses
dropped but still the dens are on federally
protected property so the madness wont end
anytime soon ....

The fox I noticed eat their meals near by where
as cat's tend to drag the meal off but not every
situation is the same ....

 

[speckledhen]

I thought I saw a toenail impression in that last photo. If so, it's a canine predator. Pics are very difficult to see.

here are gray fox prints on the road that passes my property:

 

[Wolvenkinde]

My guess would be a fox...if the prints(trail) line up like it was walking on a rope or a 2 inch board then that is most likely what it was. It is tough to tell if the toes have claws extended or not but with soft sand the evidence likely would crumble making it difficult to make a differentiation between cat or canine. The shape looks to be more fox than cat though being slightly elongated where cats are usually rounder.

 

[goldfinches]

Yes, I'm sorry the pics are so bad. Thank you all for taking the time to look at them.

I went looking for feathers today and came upon a pack of cats, 5-6 of them, living just a few hundred feet away. How do you feel about a pack of cats taking down a full-size bird?

I have never found anything but a pile of feathers from the tails of my birds. No drag marks, no blood, no nearby carcasses.

Thank you for the pics, speckled hen. Are those toenails I see at the tips of the middle toes? I can't say that I've seen those in the prints I find, but, obviously, it's hard to see in our sand.

 

[speckledhen]

Yes, I'm sorry the pics are so bad. Thank you all for taking the time to look at them.

I went looking for feathers today and came upon a pack of cats, 5-6 of them, living just a few hundred feet away. How do you feel about a pack of cats taking down a full-size bird?

I have never found anything but a pile of feathers from the tails of my birds. No drag marks, no blood, no nearby carcasses.

Thank you for the pics, speckled hen. Are those toenails I see at the tips of the middle toes? I can't say that I've seen those in the prints I find, but, obviously, it's hard to see in our sand.

Yes, they are nail prints. That road bed is a bit sandy but much less so than yours; at the dip before the road rises toward my driveway, it gathers silt and mud in one location, perfect for prints.

Not sure about the cats, but I've never known cats to work as a team as you seem to be describing. They hunt alone as far as I know. All strays around here are freaked out by my chickens when they meet up on range, though it's been awhile since I've seen any, with the resident coyote pack and the foxes here eating the cats as they do. I would expect cats to take chicks but not usually a full grown bird. Not saying they won't or can't, but it's not the first thing I'd think of with you losing that many.