What attacked my duckling? Don’t open if your squeamish

[ADuckOnQuack]

3 ducklings have been attacked. 1 missing and no trail and the other 2 have had the head and neck pulled off. I’m pretty certain one was attacked by rats. But this one was locked up in the house at night found dead in the morning. From the UK so raccoons are out the question. What is it killing my ducklings?

 

[Jessica Thompson]

Raccoon foxes coyotes possum

 

[ADuckOnQuack]

From the UK so we only have foxes not raccoons and all the other things from the states. The gap is about 1-2 inches in which the predator must of got through so either rats mink stoat weasels. Just curious to know if someone can give me a definite answer with this?

 

[Howard E]

Hard to follow the storyline of what happened.

Three birds dead out of how many total?

Only 1 dead bird was locked up in an area into which entry could only be gained through a 2 inch hole? So somehow it was killed and eaten inside? The "eaten" part could easily be rats, but would they kill it too? How big was this bird? If a young bird, rats might have killed it too. Or your weasel/stoat or some such, but normally they will kill all, or almost all, birds in the flock. They don't eat much, however. So the eating part may very well be rats. The killing part prior to that.....hard to say. If you only had 2 or 3, a fox might have gotten one of them, stoats killed the others and rats did the eating?

Where was the bird that went missing and what time of day? A missing bird, no trace, could be a fox, if bird was out and about where a fox could get to it.

So you may have a lot going on, but from the information provided, it will be hard to say what.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

not sure of the predators you guys have there,

could be a fox

i would recommend putting up trail cams to see what it is.

 

[ADuckOnQuack]

So I hatched out 17 Indian runners and now their are 4 weeks old. They are in a small outdoor enclosure about 9ft x 6ft that I made out of mesh within the main pen it’s self. I have put string lines on the top to prevent foxes and buzzards getting in. Every night I run them up the ramp into their house and shut the door. However the door has a 1-2 inch gap at the bottom which I now have sorted out. Since they have been outside I’ve had one killed by rats pulling just the neck and head clean off, in the direction of their hole. So I’m assuming the duck was too heavy to drag that’s what caused the neck to be pulled off. Since then I’ve had one completely disappear. And now this morning as I went to open the house door I found the one in the picture. So whatever it is killing them fitted through a 2 inch gap under the door. I’ve set traps and trial cams but just wondered if anyone can say for definite that it’s rats, stoat snake.... the other 13 ducklings in the house are alive and shook up.

 

[chickens really]

Sounds like a weasel to me....

 

[sourland]

I would guess a stoat or some member of the weasel family. Close that gap beneath the door.

 

[PirateGirl]

Not a snake. The only one that perhaps was a snake is the one that vanished without a trace. Snakes swallow their meal whole and sometimes in the case of poultry once they swallow it they can't get back out of the enclosure the same way they went in because they are too fat, so the snake may still be in the coop. This doesn't sound like your situation.

 

[Emmaxx]

@Hybridchucks have you seen anything like this before?

(she's UK too)