HELP?! what the heck is this?

[TehLizardKing]

We went away for a week to France, and after the great quail massacre of September, decided to cover the floor of the chicken run with wire. I kind of felt sorry for the girls, but thought it was better then being eaten by the rat/mink which we still haven't caught.

When we got back, everything was fine, except the live catch trap had been sprung. But whatever it was had eaten the bait (a collared dove) and opened the door again to get out . This morning, there were two holes in the massive pile of soil that is meant to be a hill, and tunnels underneath the wire of the run, ending in a hole between the two halves and three lumps where whatever it is has pushed the wire up.

This means war. Not only has it killed all except one of my lovely japanese quail, but we can't even find out what it is!

It doesn't leave tracks or poo anywhere near any of it's holes, and we have tried all kinds of traps, but to no avail.
So after finding one incredibly faint footprint pointing towards one of the holes, and finding (what look like) the same ones in a patch of mud not far away, I decided to post this. As far as i can tell, it looks like either a stoat or a mink. But it would be nice to know pretty much for sure. We do have stoats, but i never thought they would be the cause of the quail massacre.



The other track is too faint to show up on picture

 

[countrygoddess]

Where do you live? Here in Vermont, we have Fishers and they're basically giant weasels. They could get most of their body into a live trap meant to catch a mink or rat, grab the bait, and get out because the back end of their body is still hanging out the end. Their tracks would look like that, too. I don't know about the tunneling. Try doing a Google search for wildlife native to your area. For example, I would search, "Northeast United States native wildlife". I did that, in fact, when my cat kept bringing home these critters that looked like little half-gopher half-guinea pig things. I was able to look at a list of animals in my area and I came up with LEMMINGS! I have people whose families have lived here for generations tell me they had no idea there were lemmings in VT. LOL

 

[mmktdox]

I believe that's a fisher track. Some people call them fisher cats but they're not feline. We have them up here too, they're bigger than a weasel and a marten but smaller than a wolverine. Exellent hunters too!

Check out this link, it has a good drawing of of tracks and scat.

http://capecodwildlifecalling.com/critters/fisher-cat/

This second link explains what awesome predators they are.

http://www.nationaltrappers.com/fisher.html

I'd try a raccoon sized trap and if you're able to, shoot it once it's trapped.

 

[CluckyCharms]

Yikes, those pictures on that link kind of resemble baby bear cubs (with a tail).

Whatever you have LizardKing, I hope you're able to "git it" and I'm sorry for your quail losses, that is so sad.

 

[NCstarter]

Its a fisher or weasel...no doubt

 

[countrygoddess]

Probably not a weasel--they're not much bigger than a big rat.

 

[NCstarter]

Idk bout that the weasels in nc are pretty big. Size of cats somtime. Get a hunting game camera or call local wildIfe. Most have no problem coming out for that.

 

[TehLizardKing]

John the rat man called today, and he decided that it was a mink. He also set a trap i can't remember the name of (it's juat a basic snap trap) in the thingie's hole. We were trying to live trap and move it before, we thought it deserved to live, seeing as it only killed the quail because it needed to eat. but it's started to get closer to some of the other girls and refuses to be caught. So it is time to die little mammal. Revenge for the quail too.

How big is a fisher? cos the coin in the pic is a 50p. Oh yeah, on that note, I live in England, and fishers are definitely not native here. Have they been introduced here? or could it be an escaped exotic pet or something?

Ty for the IDs everyone

.

Hope we snap it tonight, if so, Jacob (the remaining quail) will be happy.

 

[countrygoddess]

John the rat man called today, and he decided that it was a mink. He also set a trap i can't remember the name of (it's juat a basic snap trap) in the thingie's hole. We were trying to live trap and move it before, we thought it deserved to live, seeing as it only killed the quail because it needed to eat. but it's started to get closer to some of the other girls and refuses to be caught. So it is time to die little mammal. Revenge for the quail too.

How big is a fisher? cos the coin in the pic is a 50p. Oh yeah, on that note, I live in England, and fishers are definitely not native here. Have they been introduced here? or could it be an escaped exotic pet or something?

Ty for the IDs everyone

.

Hope we snap it tonight, if so, Jacob (the remaining quail) will be happy.

Not sure how big a 50p piece is. =) Fishers are about the size of a VERY large cat with a long tail. Maybe even the size of a small fox.

http://trappingtoday.com/index.php/...n-successful-in-first-fisher-trapping-season/

 

[Oregon Blues]

You are in England? Could be someone's escaped hunting ferret. Some of those guys are huge and if they are handled enough like pets, they can be pretty clever about opening latches.