Major attack - is this a bear?

[Dancingwnature]

I live in the Hudson valley and we do have bob cats and an occasional mountain lion. Those prints look too small for a bear. I bet you have a big cat. Try installing a trail cam hopefully you can save the remaining birds and find out what’s lurking. If it’s a big cat your other animals are not safe either.

The trail cam is an excellent idea!!! I finally

bought one. It's amazing!!
This is a local 3yr. old black bear who I taught at his first year that humans mean danger. If I make noise, sing, talk to myself...uh, I mean to someone by phone, the bear goes away.

They are curious creatures and I'm able to share the forest and Big Bear Mountain with them as long as I'm consistent in never tempting them to equate humans with food. I use a marine air horn (deafening! ) when they drop by.
I learned their strength when I was given 4 rescued hens and had to put them in a temporary building, my well house.
Here's the pic again of what the bear did:

No birds lost and I have housed my hen in a large coop inside my garage/shop that even the hungriest bear couldn't breach. Neither I nor my feathered family ever want to know what a real bear hug feels like!!!
Take heart and love your feathered family! You will find a way to keep them safe under your wing as best as you can!

 

[Double Yolked]

From those claw marks I'm going to say small black bear. I've actually seen this kind of damage before. Neighbor across from me years ago lost a lot of half grown turkeys to a young hungry bear once. The bear had gotten used to being around humans and wasn't afraid of the smell of human and was quite young, barely a yearling. So probably not yet a good hunter on their own. The turkeys were just easy pickings. A bear could tear through hard-wire easily.

 

[NatJ]

Copy of a post from the original poster on page 4:

confirmed it's a bear (or multiple). I followed the trail of feathers into the woods, found various parts of birds and eventually half a guinea. Then I stood in bear scat (cleverly wearing my slippers...). About five feet further in, I saw one or more bears - looked like a cub or two and a mother. Mystery solved! Decided the best move was to back out, as I didn't really want to stare them down. Now, what to do about them...

 

[aart]

Copy of a post from the original poster on page 4:

Unfortunately the ones who don't bother reading the thread before replying,
won't pay any attention to the reminders, if they even see them.
Drives me nuts too...and I appreciate your posts here.

 

[Folly's place]

x2!
Mary

 

[NatJ]

Unfortunately the ones who don't bother reading the thread before replying,
won't pay any attention to the reminders, if they even see them.

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.)

 

[Folly's place]

It seems like this thread is worn out, unless there are updates from the OP. Anything new, @Lsox ?
Mary

 

[Lsox]

No new signs of bear - I put up an electric fence (electric net suggested by Premier1 Supplies) and the flashing LED predator eyes, since then the flock has been safe (at least so far). I managed to locate some replacements within a ten minute drive for the lost birds, though younger so will be a while until we get back to full egg production! The cockerel that had a minor injury is back in his stride and crowing again, the guineas have worked out that they shouldn't touch the fence and life slowly getting back to normal! Still have to be wary about going outside after dark, as we don't have anything to protect ourselves, but that's probably good practice anyway.

Thank you to everyone on here for your great advice. Has really been very helpful. Hopefully this can be a useful resource for others that go through a similar disaster!

 

[Double Yolked]

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.)

If you reply to the first post it puts the reply at the very end many pages forward, if there's 10+ pages many people do not have anywhere near the time to slog through all 10 pages, so they'll skip along hitting every other one or two. I am sorry if my comment came late, and offended someone.

 

[NatJ]

If you reply to the first post it puts the reply at the very end many pages forward, if there's 10+ pages many people do not have anywhere near the time to slog through all 10 pages, so they'll skip along hitting every other one or two. I am sorry if my comment came late, and offended someone.

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 every so often. I must not have enough other things to do...