Lost my little duck. All that was left were her wings (ripped clean off) and a foot. There was no blood and the only tracks (other than ducks and chickens) were these weird ones;
There's nothing to judge scale by so I have no idea what kind of bird it is, but it looks like bird tracks. Sorry for your loss.
Looks about like a couple of songbirds hopping along to me. You would find a great deal of feathers if it was a bird of prey of any sort. Could a racoon have gotten there before it snowed and done the deed? or a possum? The one time a possum got to my birds all it left were wings and feet also.
Sorry about what happened, that's awful. I have an old book about animal tracks, so I spent some time looking through it tonight. Not knowing the scale/size makes it harder, but I like puzzles. The closest think I could find was remarkably similar. If the tracks are anywhere from 1.5" to 2.5" long, spaced anywhere from 8" to 14" apart, you may well have been attacked by a member of the Mustelidae family, i.e. weasels, ferrets, mink, marten or fisher cat. They are capable of entering very small openings and are pretty much vicious predators. The names vary by region, we call them minks here and I lost a hen years ago in the same fashion. I would suggest a trap of some sort and killing it. But be aware that getting rid of one often extends an invitation for another to move in. Best of luck, very sorry about your duck.
