What Kills it, Drags it, but doesn't eat it and is probably BIG?

DragonEggs

Songster
9 Years
May 11, 2010
1,002
41
179
Borger, TX
My Jersey Giant roo usually wanders off towards the neighbors chickems during the day then comes home in the evening to roost. Day before yesterday he didn't come home.The next morning I went looking and found PILES of feathers just on the otherside of my fence. I hopped over to investigate and found that they were mostly tail feathers so my hopes were still high until I saw a small trail of a few soft feathers leading away from the site. I followed the trail for about 7 feet and food my roo's body twisted, mangled and covered in ants in a little ditch. It was hard to look at it and tell withallthe ants, but whatever killed him didn't look like it even ate much if anything at all.

First my thought was a big raccoon or possum but I figured they would eat more, then I thought maybe a fox but Im pretty sure if a fox went through all that work to kill it he would do the extra work to drag it back to his den. A cat would also take it somewhere to show off it's prize then eat some of it. Thiswas aBIG rooster and I highly doubt anything much smaller than a large raccoon would screw with him.

So, my last thought is either a coyote or a wild dog. I haven't had experience with either, and I figured a coyote may or may not travel alone but that it too would have eaten the carcass or at least taken it somewhere else.

Im just really worried about the rest of my flock even though theyre locked up. Maybe I need bigger traps....

I'll take pics later(too dark out). Input?
 
To me it sounds like it might have been a stray dog. Am very sorry for your lose, We seem to get attached to our chickens just as much as we do our dogs or other pets.
 
A dog is the only thing I know of that may kill just for sport and often does not eat anything. There is a sticky at the start of the predator section on here that might help identify the culprit, but I'm betting dog if nothing was eaten. Sorry.
 
My guess would be dog. I think a coyote would have taken it farther away and ate it. I'm sorry to hear about your loss, he must have been a great big bird.
 
Sounds like a dog to me, too. Sorry for your loss. I love JGs. Such majestic birds. Not too many smaller predators would tackle something like that unless they were very hungry. Whatever went after him wasn't hungry obviously, so he was killed for sport. That leads me to believe it was not a wild animal that did this. Do you have any neighbors that let their dogs free-range?
 
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X2 Sorry for your loss. I am dealing with some strays right now too and it's a real pain. I haven't lost any birds to them yet but its not for their lack of trying to get into my coops. Good luck to you, I hope it was a one time thing.
 
Based on my experience it would be a dog. Unless you scared it away, any of the other possible predators you mentioned that would be able to drag a bird that far would have killed it to eat it. Many dogs just kill.
 
I would guess a dog killing for sport. Everything else kills to eat. Watch the remainder of your flock. The predator will most likely return.
 
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I might be wrong but I am thinking it could be a wiesel.....They always leave a lifeless body behind. I've had something similar to this happen before only it took 2 of my birds before I caught it in my box trap.... I don't think a dog would leave evidence....I think it would carry it off to.....
 
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