Night before last something dug underneath a cage I had one of my roo's in, he stays in a large dog crate for now with a perch and the bottom tray removed so he can get at the tasty grass. Something dug up underneath the front of the crate, and was luckily only able to get a few tail feathers, but his beak got busted up a bit. Whatever it was was unable to get through the holes in the bottom of the crate, which is weighted down with a cement board that also supplies him with shade and protection from rain and to hold down the covers as it was unusually cold that night. It luckily didn't go after either of the coops that the crate was next to. The only prints that were in the dirt pile looked like an extremely large chicken print with an elongated middle toe. I would think that it was too cold that night for a lizard, it was around 34 F, no other tracks anywhere else in the yard like opossum or racoon. The yard has a 5ft chain link fence and the rest of the property is fenced with field fence and barbed wire. Last year had a similar hole underneath my bigger coop, lost the two rr pullets, no trace of them or the predator just the hole, searched all the property and didn't find any feathers. Trapped a momma opossum on mothers day last year with her seven babies, which all could have gotten through the holes in the bottom of the crate. I have seen tracks for what I am guessing would be a monitor lizard on the back part of the property, and of course feral/neighbors cat, racoon and opossum. I am in the central florida area in a scrub/dry area, not too close to water as it goes around here, and surrounded by housing complexes, used to be orange groves where they pulled up the trees and planted houses on zero lot lines. I have not seen any signs of bobcat or fox around here since the groves were destroyed. Any guesses of what it could of been and suggestions on how to trap/kill it. And any know how to find/trap/kill a monitor lizard?
