# Parade of Predators



## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Having recently lost a bunch of chickens and wanting to ask about bears, I though it might be interesting and educational to have a predator thread.
Please tell us about your encounters with animals that have caused or almost caused harm to your pets or livestock. Graphic detail not required, but do let us know how sure you are about who the culprit was and how you solved the problem (if you did).


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

I have lost one or two chickens every fall for the four years we've had chickens. This year we have lost 5 out of 11 hens (so far). Two disappeared while free ranging (birds of pray?) and three were killed in the chicken's fenced run (possibly weasel or mink).

The only predator I've actually seen was a small hawk or falcon eating one of my birds under a large bush, a couple of years ago. He came back several times a day for two or three days until one day the chicken remnants were hauled away, probably by a raccoon.


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## Tanya (Mar 31, 2020)

We have black Eagles here. I have lost some of my meercat rescues to them. Also we have a ferret that strals my chicken eggs once in a while.
The fox we had that ate my chickens was rehomed and the wild dog we found trying to take down a springbuk baby was rehomed to...


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Has anyone had confirmed bear problems with their goats? 

We have occasional black bears around here, though I have never seen one. Most years we find one or two piles of bear evidence on the property in the fall. A few weeks ago was the first time I found a pile in the goat pasture. It looked like the bear is just interested in eating apples, and has no interest in the goats.


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Wow. That would be unnerving. Thank goodness the worst for me are fox and coyote.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

We mostly deal with coyotes here and in 16 years only had one ruminate loss. We ran our sheep in the back pasture during the day with the donkeys. One year my son, who I tell yah was a sheep whisperer lol..went out to Shephard the sheep flock in for the night. He noticed a ewe was not with the flock and so after penning up the sheep headed out to find her. He found her remains in the way back. He said you can see coyotes were there and then you saw hoof prints from the donkeys. Because the the way the ewe was left we figured the donkeys interrupted the coyotes. With having so many dogs, coyotes rarely venture close to the house but last winter we were koosing ducks one by one. My son stepped out one morning and saw a coyote creeping up toward a flock free range of ducks. Yup, he looked like he's done that before. My dogs are all old now and the scent and sound didn't stir anyone them!! My son shot at the coyote. Hit him but he ran off. We penned up our ducks and never saw that coyote since. Was he dead? Or did we penned up an easy meal? 
We have had coyotes get in our barn and jump up at the roosting chickens..my daughter saw them and shot at them but she was so shocked to walk in the barn and see them she sort of freaked. We have had big owls try to get into our chick brooders. But in all our years we really have been pretty lucky. But do think it's time to look into training a younger dog 🙄. 
No bears..we do have mountain lions and Bob cats. Never bothered us here though. There is also a black panther pair in the area, again..never bothered us. We did have some human predator stealing chickens one night. My daughter chased them down screaming at them lol..of course we all heard and she had the house full and all the dogs behind her. 😆 I must say that was funny. Seeing her swinging a big stick and yelling.. those guys didn't have a chance lol


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

Ive had coyotes attack and kill a goat, and a stray dog ..they were shot & burried. 
Sorry no bears.


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## Dandy Hill Farm (Aug 5, 2021)

Sorry to hear about all the losses you guys have had. 🙁 We have been pretty lucky, and the most we have to worry about is a coyote.

Five years of raising chickens we never lost any to predators (unless you count the one time all the chickens ganged up on one and peaked her to death 😳). Oh, and there have been _several _times were we've seen a red-tailed hawk _inches_ away from grabbing one of our hens! We know we've never lost any because they were all named, pets. 🤣

They only other animal we lost to a predator was one of our young, male pheasants we had recently released. The murderer you ask? Our dog. 🙄



happybleats said:


> We did have some human predator stealing chickens one night. My daughter chased them down screaming at them lol..of course we all heard and she had the house full and all the dogs behind her. 😆 I must say that was funny. Seeing her swinging a big stick and yelling.. those guys didn't have a chance lol


Oh my goodness! That is a pretty funny thing to picture! You have a very brave daughter, that's for sure! Wonder why the guys wanted your chickens?


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## Rancho Draco (Sep 29, 2021)

Most of my chicken losses have been disappearing acts during the day with no trace left behind. I assume fox or coyote or dogs or cats. I've had one hen killed and eaten by rats, one killed and eaten by some kind of medium sized canine (either someone's dog or a coyote). I've shot plenty of cats and saw my rooster fight off a bald eagle before. I was able to poison the rats because it was just a pair that came over from the infested neighbors place. I've never had problems with my goats but I lock them up at night. I've seen bears in the area but I've never seen them on the property.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Dandy Hill Farm said:


> Wonder why the guys wanted your chickens


They were working on the fencing for their employer...im betting saw an opportunity


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

When I had chickens and a chain link fence- a raccoon tried to pull a hen through the chain link. It didn't work out well for the poor hen. 
We live trapped the raccoon (bait was the poor hen) and dispatched it. A coyote in broad daylight grabbed a free range hen- all I had was a rock to throw at it.
That poor hen lived, but was never right after that- she layed eggs, but would not go outside- ever!


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

happybleats said:


> There is also a black panther pair in the area,


Wow. Have you seen them?? They seem to be very elusive.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

One of my daughters was washing dishes and looking out the window saw one walking past our pond. I barely got a glimpse.


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## Lil Boogie (Mar 24, 2021)

DISCLAIMER AND A WARNING BEFORE READING. This may come across to some people as disturbing and very graphic, so please remember I did put a disclaimer up for ya! Thanks!

When I was 6 my sister got me a bantam. I cant remember what kind he was but he was my baby... 3 years later one morning my sister went to feed all the chickens ane found that his head had been pulled off. We knew it had to have been a raccoon. So, my dad waited one night and sure enough, it came back. He killed it and we've never had anymore problems outra raccoons here ever again.

Last year we got my other sister a rabbit for her birthday. One day, she was out in the backyard in their pen and our neighbors husky killed her. It was so frustrating. When my dad heard the dogs barking and went outside with his 306.....He shot at the dog but didn't know that he was shoting where I was. I dropped to the ground. I didn't know what was goung on. And yes, I was in the goat pasture.....WITH the goats. My dad was so angry at the dog he forgot where he was aiming. He missed the dog. Unfortunately. That dog, I would have put him down myself if I had the chance. He was fine with people but killed small things for sport and his owners let him run freely. Im the one who had to hold the little baby bunny. Her name was dumpling. I felt her bones, her ribs were all broken into hundreds of peaces and all the blood..... It was a very sad day for all of us, As we all loved the rabbit. The two other rabbits that were in the pen with her were okay. They ran and hid but we found them, thank goodness.


Another time is when we had hair sheep at my grandmas house. We had like 10 ewes and 1 ram. And a couple of babies. 3 dogs got in their pasture. They started killing anything they could get a hold of. We ended up with 3 ewes and the 1 ram and two dead pit mixes. My dad had got their just in time to get two but the other dog ran away.


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## DDFN (Jul 31, 2011)

Well I used to have a bear over at the old rental farm. 80 acres in the middle of no where, it was supposed to turn into a rent to own and the two men that inherited it from their father decided renting was bettetr than rent to own until we moved. Then they sold it. Ok so that farm had most of the acres back over the hill and down towards the pond. We called it the back 40 when it was probably more like 60 acres in the back. My husband kept seeing a bear and beady eyes at night walking to the back to feed the horses. I found its den once next to the lower sheep fields. It never blighted us. We had enough fruit trees and LGD's and a llama. There was a small trailer down front that my husband's mother lived in a short while. The bear always would take her trash cans and mess with the side of the trailer. A friend did give us a can of counter beer assault spray just in case.
Only lost on goat young buckling when a group of 4 wheelers tore up our back road while the goats were free ranging. He got separate from the group and went off with out the LGD's. Never found him but found his bones later from what appeared to be a coyote.
Lost some ducks to raccoons before pulling them through the night lot fence. 

Used to have such a big issue at night removed the screens from the windows so we could shoot straight from the house. 

Had some human spot lighting the sheep field for "deers" or so they said. I would always run down their in my boots, pjs and be ready to whip then in a heartbeat. For a week I stayed up spot lighting the spot lighters, until I told them the next time I see something moving down there I was going to assume it was a coyote and well you know what we do with coyotes. And they stopped showing up spot lighting. 

We had some foxes but they always ate the fruit fallen from the fruit trees and never once causes issues. 

At the new place we have foxes and darn ground hogs (garden predators lol) so far all animals have been fine. . . But not my garden!


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## Goatastic43 (Jun 11, 2021)

happybleats said:


> One of my daughters was washing dishes and looking out the window saw one walking past our pond. I barely got a glimpse.


Wow! A black panther! I didn’t know Texas had panthers….. That would freak me out! 

We do have black bears in Tennessee and I’ve seen several, but none near our property. The only real threat I’ve seen is a single coyote in the pasture this year, though I never saw him since. The thing I’m scared of is a dog attack. We have some neighbors who let there dogs run loose once in a while and I unnerves me for sure!

Back in Central Illinois when we had chickens, there were all kinds of threats. (Coyotes, foxes, possums, skunks, etc.) The worst were weasels which we took out a few and they returned the favor and took out our whole flock. 🤦‍♀️ I hate weasels….. 

My grandpa was an expert raccoon hunter. Raccoons always got/ate something and we were surrounded by corn fields so there were plenty of raccoons. My grandpa (who was our neighbor at the time) hunted dozens of them all in his yard! After they moved we were over run with raccoons. They would go through your yard in the daylight like you weren’t even there.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Goatastic43 said:


> Wow! A black panther! I didn’t know Texas had panthers….. That would freak me out!


They say they aren't in Texas but there has been sightings of what is thought to be. What we saw sure looked like one. There have been others in our area that say they seen one. Who knows for sure. But we think it sure was one.


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## Tanya (Mar 31, 2020)

Fortunately my predators are small and endangered so I cannot kill anything that wants a snack. So we live capture, health check and find new homes. I did lose my chick to a darned house cat last week which upset me..... but I am not allowed to shoot it.... Its funny, reading about allot of symbiotic relationships on here.....


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Ugh bears. We have a bear in the Area and I have been on pins and needles about it coming in for my goats but so far people’s chicken coops seem to be keeping them busy. That jerk has been absolutely destroying peoples coops and getting in and killing all their chickens. So be carful! 
But we have lost some calfs to bears before, and have harassed the cows and horses where we summer them. Also wild hogs have been bad about killing our calf’s at our one ranch. We now just take moms and larger calf’s over and that seems to solve that. We have had 1 loss and a injury from a mountain lion. 
Coyotes usually are not bad until this year, I had them get in and take down one of my goats and was eating her alive but was finally able to get the mother and two pups I believe. 
The poor chickens seem to be the worst about predators if they stay close to the house they are safe (except for the now dead coyotes) but have lost them to hawks, bobcats, and a weasel once came in and killed all my chickens and rabbits in one night. 
Probably the worst thing we have though is peoples dogs. We back up to a subdivision and everyone loves to move to the country where their dogs and go run and play on the ranch behind them, which ends in dogs packing up and attacking the cows.


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## alwaystj9 (Apr 10, 2019)

No large predators except humans...
Rat snakes - eat chicks and eggs, if you grab it by the tail and swing it hard in a circle, screaming at it (because you wanted those eggs), the eggs will fly out of its surprised mouth. Then you let go and let it fly across the road to the neighbor you don't like. Hawks: mostly Cooper's and Redtail, currently netting my run as the hawks are not migratory anymore and over-winter here, lost 14 birds this year and hawks are protected with jail time if you kill or trap them. Owls: prefer white chickens, the netting should stop them, too. Snapping turtles- I don't know what they are after but they get caught inside the fence and are scary as heck and hard to remove safely. Weasels - I thought I had terrible people popping the heads off chickens and leaving them in one spot in the pasture but found out it was weasels. Wharf/Norwegian Rats: bigger than my barncats and I swear they can chew through metal, actually shot the back window out of my truck trying to get rid of these. Raccoons: I went in the feed room in the dark one morning and saw one of my barncat's butts hanging out of the catfood barrel so I smacked it on the butt as I went by and it was not a barn cat. Darn things eat chickens and cause mayhem and destruction all over the place. Possums: stupidest excuse for a chicken killer ever...Armadillos: not a predator but dig holes we all trip in so that kind of counts. 2 small alligators after the 2016 flood, they were easier to get rid of than snapping turtles because you can grab the tail. Where I live I should have coyotes but never have seen one. I do hear them occassionally.
As for the 2 legged ones...1 baby-goat stealing apparently reached over the fence one day and took a baby home. His GF knew me and brought it back and she ran him off. I found a drunk chasing chickens in my yard because, "My Suzy wants some chickens..." Unfortunately I know Suzy and called Suzy and Suzy told me to call the police on him. 2 really stupid, like Jackass, The Movie, stupid who were in my pasture trying to rope a goat. The goat was actually not even running away, just standing there. That's how bad their roping skills were...anyway, I just called the cops.
Do people who sneak animals into your yard count? or is that a reverse predator?


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## Goats Rock (Jun 20, 2011)

Subsonic .22 bullets are pretty quiet and lethal at close range. (in case one has neighbors and don't want to get in trouble).


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## JML Farms (Jan 1, 2021)

happybleats said:


> They say they aren't in Texas but there has been sightings of what is thought to be. What we saw sure looked like one. There have been others in our area that say they seen one. Who knows for sure. But we think it sure was one.


Yes, I'm in central Texas and have seen a picture of a black one taken in our pasture in the middle of the day! Luckily, I have not lost any animals to it, but I'm still concerned. About a year ago I saw a tan one on the side of the road walking in the ditch. Right down the road from where this one was spotted, I have a friend that kept loosing goats to what he thought was dogs so he got a guard llama. A few days later he found the llama dead in the woods. He suspects the mountain lion got it. I know people say they are not around here, but they are. I've heard they follow the wild hogs as that is the hog's only natural predator.


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Interesting, I didn't know that about the hogs. 
Our neighbors down the road said they saw one in their pasture a few years ago. Some folks argued it couldn't be a panther but they were sure of what they saw.


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## Jessica84 (Oct 27, 2011)

Oh hogs are terrible! I hate the dang things. They are not too bad if just a few but when they are in a huge……herd (??? Is that what it’s called????) they can get bad. A mother cow can fight a few off but not a bunch of them. 
It’s funny how people think that wild animals follow some invisible line on where they should and shouldn’t be, especially with animals that are very protective of their areas, like I’m assuming a panther is. It wouldn’t be hard for one to keep being pushed out of another panthers area and find it’s self on the wrong side of where they should be. The same thing is happening here with mountain lions. With them becoming so over populated the less dominate ones are being pushed into city limits


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## DDFN (Jul 31, 2011)

We have Panthers near the old farm but not where we are now. But most people know about them around here. Been lucky boot to have wild hogs but my aunt's living on the mountain have a horrible issue with them.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

So, what about owls??
Lost another two chickens a couple of days ago in the fenced "yard". Heads and neck mutilated or missing. I read that owls might do that to chickens. It would explain why none have been killed in their smaller "run" which has a fenced roof but is not weasel proof. Though I don't know that an owl would kill two chickens.


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## Moers kiko boars (Apr 23, 2018)

I didnt know that about owls. Ill have to watch my girls closer in the Spring
I knew hawks & Eagles would kill chickens. Thanks for the info!


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## Tanya (Mar 31, 2020)

I have a rock pigeon I am rehabbing. She is a pre-fledling. A crow tried to take her out of her nest. She broke her wing and a rib. Its been 2 weeks. All damage that is left is two holes where the crows claw came through. She is not tame but I will have to keep her in my chicken coup


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## happybleats (Sep 12, 2010)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> Heads and neck mutilated or missing. I


Here skunks Do that. We found a few headlesss chickens over the years


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I would certainly consider an owl being the culprit.


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## FizzyGoats (Apr 14, 2021)

We’ve had a chicken killed by a hawk and one by a peregrine falcon. We saw the culprits dinning. We’ve had neighbors loose them to owls, eagles, raccoons, and opossums as well. And we lost one young turkey to a snake. I’ve had hawks swoop within feet of me, deafening me with their screech, trying to get my chickens. I swear they know they’re protected.

We just put up game cameras and right outside the back gate (our property extends well beyond the gate), there was a good sized coyote. They don’t breach our fence (as far as I know) and I know they’re out there because I hear them but I didn’t know they got so close. And the picture was taken around 8 p.m., so not real late. 

Apparently there are wild hogs moving in about 10 miles from us but we’ve never seen any. And I don’t think we have bears in this part of TN. 

In Colorado our worst predators were mountain lion and bear. The black bear never caused us any real problems. The mountain lions were more of an issue, taking calves, lambs, and even dogs from nearby farms. We had a pack of LGDs and the mountain lions didn’t mess with our animals.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> So, what about owls??
> Lost another two chickens a couple of days ago in the fenced "yard". Heads and neck mutilated or missing. I read that owls might do that to chickens. It would explain why none have been killed in their smaller "run" which has a fenced roof but is not weasel proof. Though I don't know that an owl would kill two chickens.


I missed the opportunity to show off my owl pics. Both taken about 3 years ago right here on my property.









Great horned owl










Barred owl


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## JML Farms (Jan 1, 2021)

Mike at Capra Vista said:


> So, what about owls??
> Lost another two chickens a couple of days ago in the fenced "yard". Heads and neck mutilated or missing. I read that owls might do that to chickens. It would explain why none have been killed in their smaller "run" which has a fenced roof but is not weasel proof. Though I don't know that an owl would kill two chickens.


Yep, skunks will do that. Owls typically take their prey.


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## Mike at Capra Vista (Nov 30, 2017)

JML Farms said:


> Yep, skunks will do that. Owls typically take their prey.


There are no skunks on Vancouver Island (so I have read) and they could not get into the chicken enclosure anyway.


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