What is this? Found it dead thankfully!!!

[chickenlisa]

I found this 2 days ago, dead in our front yard. I use Tomahawk poison blocks under our sheds and down rat holes that our barn cats can't get to. I'm thinking it was poisoned or the cats would've have eaten it... It was a baby, which makes me think there are more around for sure....from head to rump, prolly about 5-6". Needless to say, I refreshed all of the poison blocks under the sheds and elsewhere.... Very scary looking. Any advice will be very appreciated!!! We're in the process of reinforcing and baby proofing our Mandarin pen now...but our chicken pen is very feeble and any old predator could potentially walk right in...the wire is getting old and weak.



Lisa

 

[BrendaJ]

Looks like a type of weasel ... They like to eat chickens

 

[Habibs Hens]

I suspect that is a ferret

prob a family pet that got loose and died as its not accustomed to the outside world

 

[chickenlisa]

I'll ask my few neighbors if they had a pet baby ferret, but I don't think so...we only have 4 other houses near us and most of them don't have any children...I'm very worried it could be a weasel or mink, or baby fisher...I'll look those up and see. Yikes...the worst we've had is raccoons and foxes in the past. Our one farmer neighbor traps coyotes, raccoons, and foxes though...and weasel types wouldn't be big enough to get caught in his traps...

 

[pappy1264]

That is a weasel, you can see the pink nose, so a young one. Unfortunately, they love chickens (or most other little prey they can get their teeth in. I rehab baby bunnies and I am always watching out for these!)

 

[bugglesmommy]

Looks like a weasel and not a ferret to me. That's a pretty long tail to. May help with species identification. What part of the country do you live in?

 

[sourland]

Long tailed weasel, probably a female and mature. Young will not appear until about mid summer when they will start hunting with their mother. May have died from eating poisoned mice/rats, but most likely one of your cats killed it. Although some cats will kill weasels, in my experience, they do not eat them. Perhaps it is the musky odor that puts them off?

 

[chickenlisa]

wow- so much to learn! Thanks guys! My farmer neighbor guy said the same thing and that its an adult... coming out of its winter color (white belly) and not a mink or ferret. He used to trap them when the chipmunk population got high- the weasels would come out of the woodwork, so to say. He told me an easy way to kill them if we notice chickens getting killed....a box covering a dish of liver inside and a rat trap in front of that...cut a little hole in the box and they'll go for it every time- easier than going for the live chickens, according to him.
Hope i don't see anymore of them though.
Thanks!

 

[bugglesmommy]

Could also be a least weasel with that white belly. Weasels are little but bad news! Your very lucky it didn't get anything before it kicked the bucket.

 

[Ribbit]

Looks like a stoat to me, not a weasel, notice the black tip to the tail. (Stoats are larger than weasels)
I highly doubt it's a ferret, not quite the right body shape.