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?
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?