What predator would pile up dead chickens?

[Bri A]

I have been raising birds for years, so I am familiar with predator issues, but I have a new one. I have a small flock of a dozen 2-month-old Jersey Giants and 4 full-grown ducks. The other morning I went to the barn to find only two chicks in the barn. 4 ducks and 7 small chickens are totally missing. Here is the interesting part. There were three chicken carcasses in a neat little pile in the middle of the horse paddock outside the barn. Two intact and one with a missing head. Missing head makes me think raccoon or owl, but an owl would only kill one or two, and I do not think a raccoon would carry off 4 ducks and 7 chicks. I have never heard of anything piling them up, like they were making a neat little cache and were planning to come back for them. That sounds more like a fox, but I don't see a fox carrying off that many. It could be coyotes, but I don't think they would pile anything up. Happened at night or before 10 AM. Has anyone had a predator make a pile out of their kills?

 

[Rose the Legbar]

Probably some sort of weasel/stoat as they are known to kill for sport. Do you know if weasels/stoats are in your part of the world? It could be fox but they dont sport hunt usually.

 

[Mrs. K]

I think it is a coons. They tend to get them in the dark. I wonder if something spooked them off.

 

[NewcoopNewpoop]

Domestic dog.

 

[Bri A]

Update: I saw a fox in the back pasture carrying off something tonight. Spooked and ran off before I could get a bead on it, but no doubt a red fox. No new casualties, so it looks like it had come back for a carcass it had previously stashed. Cannot say it was not a coincidence, or just scavenging what something else left, but another piece of evidence pointing to a fox. Need to find some British equestrians with some hounds and have a proper fox hunt.

 

[pauwau]

Probably some sort of weasel/stoat as they are known to kill for sport. Do you know if weasels/stoats are in your part of the world? It could be fox but they dont sport hunt usually.

yes I agree weasels do stockpile. I had a Mama move in on my porch and have her babies. I let them stay and observed her adding to her caches. She had dead animals stockpiled in the walls. I observed her moving her babies, (probably too much human activity), and gathered up all her corpses and left them in a pile where she exited. She moved them all to her new home outside. I immediately ripped out all the insulation, disinfected everything and made sure I sealed up access to the porch. The point of that long winded story is that I've personally observed weasels stockpiling food. I know fox will cache food briefly and raccoons not at all.

 

[McChooky]

Probably some sort of weasel/stoat as they are known to kill for sport. Do you know if weasels/stoats are in your part of the world? It could be fox but they dont sport hunt usually.

Fishers, martins, otters, weasels and ferrets are all in the same family.Not everything stockpiles food like a weasel(their trademark is piling up bodies)

 

[Seaslug]

And they do not kill for sport. Or fun. Or trophies. They stockpile for food. When it comes to kill or be killed, only humans can risk killing for sport. Those animals that are lucky enough to expend energy on activities not critical to survival get to enjoy some fun.

Don't know if it strikes anyone else as interesting that so many humans have no problem assigning the motivation of "sport" or "spite" to non-human animals but the thread on chickens feeling love or affection is chalked up to anthropomorphism.

 

[WhatsUpDuck]

I wonder if it was a mama fox teaching/feeding her kits? I don't know..I'm sorry you lost some of your flock

LORD JESUS IS KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't believe any animal kills for "sport" or for "fun." We call it that because we don't understand their real motives and that's what it looks like to us when a predator kills more than it needs for an immediate meal or for its young, because that's what we do.*. But think it through. Does a predator understand it is taking a life? And can it possibly get enjoyment from that murderous act? Does it know what "life" even is? Or what it means to deprive another creature of "life"? That's all pretty philosophical for an animal with a brain the size of a pea or even a walnut. I think a predator like a weasel gets into a hen house and gets a taste of blood. And it likes that taste and wants more, and the chickens are flying around in a frenzy and the weasel is biting at them in an equal frenzy and then the chickens are dead and it's just that simple. The weasel doesn't go in there thinking it's party time and how many chickens can he kill to put notches on his belt and go home and brag about. He wants blood, not fun.

*I'm not talking about murder here, I'm talking about sport or even commercial capture like hunting or fishing. If there were no limits how many of us would hunt a species to extinction, and we have done so. Whether it's trout or bass or mussels or clams or deer or ducks or doves or whales, there are poachers among us who want to take more than the law allows because we are no different from the raccoons or weasels who take more than we need for no better reason than that we can. But in humans we call it poaching.