Duck missing, water predator??

[geoff40]

Snapping turtles can take adult ducks. Snapping turtles can grow to some amazing size, seriously. 3 to 4 feet across the shell size, no kidding. The accepted world record is 249 pounds, but there are several unverified reports going quite a ways bigger than that. But, what exactly do you mean when you say a stream? How wide, how deep, how fast?

 

[AV Brahmas]

SO....you found no trace of the duck if I remember the OP after reading all the responses? First let me say that it is not unheard of for a duck to float off down stream and get lost. That is the easy route.

Predators? It really helps to know a location because not all predators are world wide. We really do not want to type a list of all NA predators just to find out you are in Ireland.

But chances are you are in the US so.....

Turtle? For full grown ducks this would be snapper. In the north there are no monster turtles as described. Common snappers average about 20 lbs. I have been catching the ugly brutes all my life. Going to be tough for one of those to catch and conceal a full grown duck in a stream. Alligator snapper down south is much larger but if you were down there I would be betting on the gator himself and not the turtle.

Animals?

Raccoons and mink are the most common around water. Raccoon would be a good bet. Fox or coyote also a good bet. Everything drinks and comes to water sooner or later.

Birds?

All hawks will pluck ducks from the water surface. Usually Calls or East Indies or young ducks but they do take ducks.

Reality is you may never know for sure. Keep an eye on the others and expand your search for remains. Most mammals will carry it inland a short distance to kill it and there should be feathers. watch the area. Predators often return.

Good luck!

 

[homesteadinmama]

Our stream (I'd call it a river, but in NH it is a brook or stream) is 40-50 ft wide and a depth of 6 ft or less. The ducks still refuse to go in the water. We haven't lost any other animals, and we went hunting to find feathers or the carcass, found nothing. There is a female snapping turtle that lays eggs in our front yard every year and she has a shell diameter of about 18 inches. We usually help the hatchling turtles cross our driveway to the edge of the stream... There is a beaver that lives 200ft down stream, do they like ducks?

We have some hawks but in the woods there are lots of coverage to hide the ducks in so aerial attacks haven't been a problem, they had a nice hidden cove off of the stream, and like I said didn't see any feathers.

We called downstream, I call quackers and they usually give me a quack to say here we are. The current isn't really fast nice steady "bubbling brook". But the ducks still refuse to get in the water...They have a kiddie pool but they seemed much happier floating in their cove.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Quote:
"in the north" is a little vague for me, I grew up north of Green Bay, Wisconsin, actually North of the 45th Parrallel, is that "in the north"?

Twenty years ago, I was out fishing with a friend on a lake in Northern WI (can't remember the name of the lake now, it was over 20 years ago). We went up a small stream to his "secret" fishing spot and out in the middle of this "pond" was a huge snapper, floating just beneath the surface. We rowed up next to it and estimated that it was well over 2 feet in diameter, its head was over 4" wide. It rolled its eye to look at us as we rowed around him. I have seen alot of your typical snappers, My dad has the shell of one in his garage that is 14" across. That snapper we saw in the lake that day was not a typical one for sure.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
a lot of times if you have beaver there will be otter close by an otter is like a 30 pound weasel

 

[Pinky]

If you've seen a snapping turtle, I would guess that's what happened

 

[aprophet]

beings turtles are cold blooded I would be surprised if they are moving hardy any at all as their metabolism slows so does their appetite, otters on the other hand are eatting hard right now trying to get through the winter it is almost warm here ( 75-77*) and all I am seeing is sliders the snappers are almost all in the mud right now

 

[homesteadinmama]

Quote:
Update*** I found the otter yesterday evening with a large pekin in its mouth, luckily it was a small otter so I think the duck will be okay but there must be a family of otters, cause we lost a cayuga yesterday too. We have two traps next to the duck house. The otters jarred the pen fence open and got the ducks that way. At least their duck house is secure. I officially hate otters...

 

[desertdarlene]

Quote:
Update*** I found the otter yesterday evening with a large pekin in its mouth, luckily it was a small otter so I think the duck will be okay but there must be a family of otters, cause we lost a cayuga yesterday too. We have two traps next to the duck house. The otters jarred the pen fence open and got the ducks that way. At least their duck house is secure. I officially hate otters...

So your Pekin is OK? That's good news. Sorry about your Cayuga.

 

[homesteadinmama]

Yes I think the Pekin will be okay, kept her in the house 24hrs, and the bites stopped bleeding pretty fast yesterday put blue kote on it, now it is a blue/white pekin. But in total the otter stole 3 ducks (runner, swedish, cayuga) and we had an injured swedish a few months back. At least now we have seen the culprit and have baited traps for it, just wish I had my .22 in my hand when I went running after the otter, darn thing runs fast like a squirrel.