One of my Muscovy ducks, a 4 month old drake, was found to had been murdered. We found him under our house. He had been in a cedar fenced area with his buddies and our 4 toulouse Geese. I think that the preditor found access to the duck from an open foundation vent for our house. Or, this drake wondered under the house, got lost and was then attacked.
I didn't think to take a photo before burying the duck.
I need help in trying to identify the predator, so that I can then focus on destroying those responsible for this.
The ducks neck flesh was completely gone. The neck bones and head were still intact and connected to the body. The skin was open from the neck, over center breast and all the way down to the vent. There was a small bit of torn tissue at the lower abdomen and some of it's entrails were exposed. The breast meat was still there, not eaten or damaged and other than the skin having been pulled back, no other flesh was missing.
I don't know if this is enough to go on, but I would sure appreciate opinions as to what the predator may have been, such as to allow me to focus my efforts in killing off every one of these vicious predators. I know that whatever it is, they will eventually come back, but I will kill as many as I can.
I would also appreciate any guidance on how best to trap and kill these varmints.
I don't know if this helps, but we have had 26 laying hens for a little over a year. While we were on a 3 week camping vacation, our neighbors forgot to close the backdoor to the house, resulting in the loss of 7 of our girls. I did not see the destroyed birds, but was told that their necks were stripped and breasts were eaten out. The predators removed eggs from the house, leaving a dozen empty shells outside the house. One egg was found on a neighbors drive about 100 yards north of the house. The neighbor speculated that a weasel did this.
While I have never seen these in the 25+ years that we have lived here, we have several predators that frequent our area: weasels, raccoons, feral cats, lynx, skunk, cougar, eagles, hawks, owls, the American Bold Eagle, bears and mountain beaver. There may be others I haven't mentioned. Stray dogs are not a problem here... they used to be, but not anymore.
This drake was one of 6 of the Muscovy ducks that we bought about 3 weeks ago. They were already eating from our hand, coming when we called and following us around. His name was Elvis and seemed like a nice guy, though a little shy. I will show no quarter when it comes to dealing with the predator, as soon as I know what to hunt and how best to trap and kill it.
Thanks for any help on this.
I didn't think to take a photo before burying the duck.
I need help in trying to identify the predator, so that I can then focus on destroying those responsible for this.
The ducks neck flesh was completely gone. The neck bones and head were still intact and connected to the body. The skin was open from the neck, over center breast and all the way down to the vent. There was a small bit of torn tissue at the lower abdomen and some of it's entrails were exposed. The breast meat was still there, not eaten or damaged and other than the skin having been pulled back, no other flesh was missing.
I don't know if this is enough to go on, but I would sure appreciate opinions as to what the predator may have been, such as to allow me to focus my efforts in killing off every one of these vicious predators. I know that whatever it is, they will eventually come back, but I will kill as many as I can.
I would also appreciate any guidance on how best to trap and kill these varmints.
I don't know if this helps, but we have had 26 laying hens for a little over a year. While we were on a 3 week camping vacation, our neighbors forgot to close the backdoor to the house, resulting in the loss of 7 of our girls. I did not see the destroyed birds, but was told that their necks were stripped and breasts were eaten out. The predators removed eggs from the house, leaving a dozen empty shells outside the house. One egg was found on a neighbors drive about 100 yards north of the house. The neighbor speculated that a weasel did this.
While I have never seen these in the 25+ years that we have lived here, we have several predators that frequent our area: weasels, raccoons, feral cats, lynx, skunk, cougar, eagles, hawks, owls, the American Bold Eagle, bears and mountain beaver. There may be others I haven't mentioned. Stray dogs are not a problem here... they used to be, but not anymore.
This drake was one of 6 of the Muscovy ducks that we bought about 3 weeks ago. They were already eating from our hand, coming when we called and following us around. His name was Elvis and seemed like a nice guy, though a little shy. I will show no quarter when it comes to dealing with the predator, as soon as I know what to hunt and how best to trap and kill it.
Thanks for any help on this.
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