Im in shock right now

[docdubz]

Was there a hole? Gap?

Thats pretty bad...

I have had chickens come back from hiding after a predator attack though. Keep looking...

Im not too hopeful about that. There are a real lot of feathers everywhere. Many big piles scattered in the pasture and about a large pillow case worth strewn about closer to the barn. I think the total is looking like 24 hens and 6 two month old chicks

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Oh my God! They ate one of my neighbors donkeys too!

Oh crap that’s terrifying. All the farmers around here donkeys to protect the rest of the animals.
I would be scared about them attacking people if they are that aggressive. Is it possible that there are strays dogs running with the pack? Its a huge problem around here since the dogs train the coyotes to more aggressive and attack larger animals and people.

 

[cmom]

I had thought about dogs too. My niece had a couple of pit bulls. I'm not prejudging the breed, the two of them attacked a horse. One of the dogs was killed on the spot. The horse was so severely injured it had to be put down. The other dog ran off. My niece had to take the dog to animal control and it was euthanized.

 

[docdubz]

I'm pretty sure coyotes can't eat 30 chickens and a donkey in a day. Maybe teaching their young how to hunt...

There is not a scrap of chicken flesh anywhere but plenty of feathers. Theres imprints in my field where at least 20 of them were sitting eating chicken. There was still meat on the donkey but not much.

Oh crap that’s terrifying. All the farmers around here donkeys to protect the rest of the animals.
I would be scared about them attacking people if they are that aggressive. Is it possible that there are strays dogs running with the pack? Its a huge problem around here since the dogs train the coyotes to more aggressive and attack larger animals and people.

Could be dogs among them. No one has ever seen one with them. Theres rumors of coywolf in the area but i have no idea if that is a legitimate rumor or not.

 

[Percheron chick]

Sounds like a mountain lion.

 

[docdubz]

Them standing their ground when i ran out with a gun the other night kind of has me thinking everyone might be right about them being wolves, but they supposedly are extinct in texas

 

[Folly's place]

Here there are occasional reports of solitary cougar and black bears, not all confirmed. I wouldn't be shocked to find out that at least sometimes they will be traveling through here. Good reasons to be careful out there!
Likely stray dogs are more of a risk here though; walking alone in the woods has lost it's appeal, I'm getting wimpier over time! Cougars scare me way more than the black bears.
Mary

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Supposedly no bears but when I first took ownership of my property there were tracks that looked like bear and when I asked my neighbors they said "the guy that owned the property used to walk with no shoes on thats gotta be it theres no bear here"

Nobody could mistake a BARE human footprint for a BEAR track.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Blue, are you all dealing with black bear and cougar where you are?

The latest MODOC report have bear sightings as close to us (Macon County) one county away.

The weird thing we are hearing now is that an Amish farmer that harvests our hay for us swears that he saw a grey wolf near his barn early one morning. I asked if he could have seen a big yote and the neighbor who has the farm between ours and the Amish man in question and he said, no, Mose knows his animals and if he said he saw a wolf, he saw a wolf.

Great Cougars and Black bears and wolfs, oh my!

No, not to my knowledge. There was a report of a cougar not too far from here a year or so ago, but it seems to have been an isolated incident. We hear coyotes from time to time but that's all. My little Gracie chased off three of them one afternoon several years back and we haven't seen any since. Gone for easier pickings, I suppose. They did then try to lure her, but she came back when I hollered at her, thank goodness!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Yes, I've heard of them baiting domestic dogs and either killing them or breeding them which leaves the female damaged. I'm glad she came back to you.

Our vet back in IL told us to take care you dog chasing raccoons especially if there is water nearby like a pond.

He told me that there were instances in the area we lived in where dogs had chased raccoons in the water only to have the raccoons climb on them, push their head under water and drown them. No way the dog can free itself.

Like everything else Missouri can grow some darned big raccoons. I've caught them that were so large they filled the live trap.

I guess we get all the good stuff up here in the northern half of the state.

No wait! Souther MO got Elk! Like hitting a big old buck isn't bad enough now you get the chance to total your car on a beast that is as big as a horse.

Everyone say thank you Missouri...THANK YOU MISSOURI!

I've only been here 11 years, I'm from CO, AZ, NM. I call this "Planet MO," lol. But we had elk back there. Haven't seen any here yet.. back in NM there were areas and times they were wall-to-wall. Gorgeous beasts. Enormous. Yeah, they'll total you, you're not driving home with a dented fender! And you're right about raccoons. They look cute and cuddly and who didn't fall in love with Rascal of storybook fame? But there's a world of disconnect between Disney and my beheaded chicken.