Raccoon or Cannibalism? Graphic

[Fezziwig]

So, I lost a duck last night. It was one that had an injured foot for a few weeks but seemed to be on the mend. I'm trying to decide if this is a raccoon attack or cannibalism from either ducks or chickens. I feed them in the same pen but they sleep separately. I should also mention I lost another duck outside of it's pen 2 months ago to what I suspect was a raccoon (neck chewed only, head pulled through privacy fence). In this case, there are feathers everywhere, neck also chewed, but covered in flies. The reason I question if it was a raccoon is that there are no signs of trying to get into the pen, and the duck is about 2 feet from the sides. The bottom 18 inches has hardware cloth all around, and 2x4 welded wire covered in a tarp (no holes). There appears to be no signs of tampering, and no other injured ducks. That would have to be a big raccoon to reach so far, or the duck would have had to stand up next to the side (possible), but how did it end up 2-3 feet from the sides of the pen?

I plan to bait a live animal trap tonight, but I'm wondering if this could just be that the duck died suddenly and was cannibalized, possibly by the chickens. Any thoughts or advice?

 

[dennisma1]

I don't know about ducks, but when chickens die they can do an alarming amount of flopping about in their death throes . It sure sounds weird though.

 

[Fezziwig]

I don't know about ducks, but when chickens die they can do an alarming amount of flopping about in their death throes . It sure sounds weird though.

That's a good point. A lot of it's neck was eaten though. If it flopped to the middle of the pen, a raccoon wouldn't have been able to eat it after the kill. Someone else suggested weasel on a Facebook page. I always thought weasels would have attacked the others too or killed more than one. I also didn't think they'd be in an urban area, but I might be wrong on that.

 

[New Chick In The Backyard]

I'm sorry for your loss. I posted something similar just now.