lost bunny rabbit
Ditch-Runner
Member Posts: 25,390 ✭✭✭✭
we had , a rabbit in our yard , left over from when my thought having rabbits was a good idea , any way he was the last one and has been staying in and around our yard for years he was the only one . we just called him bunny rabbit he was all black . he would come up to you looking for goodies usually a slice of bread was his favorite .
any way skip ahead we took the dogs on a walk a short time ago on a old drive way / path about 80 yards from the house there was a gut pile and just a two tiny patches of skin and fur maybe 2" square wife started crying she get emotional and attached to the animals
I honestly never thought he would have made it this long just staying in the yard with the yotes and foxes and hawks we get wondering by
I am not sure what got him and would just left the gut pile and a couple pieces of fur . I am guessing a fox as there a bit rare to see but are around us .
we have cats but they have lived with the rabbit for many years and never bothered him . and there well fed
I am a long way from being a outdoors man when it comes to guessing what got him but a Fox is my best guess ?
Comments
Sounds like the 2 legged predator no fur and guts...
A bob cat will eat a rabbit, like you or I would eat an Egg McMuffin.
Hawk.
Only a human predator would leave entrails.
no way a human .
it was as night so that ruled out a hawk , we have yotes and have lost a couple chickens and I am sure a cat or two they left tracks all around the chicken pen back in the winter looking for a easy meal
we have foxes that pass thru rarely possibly a stray cat or dog but no bones nothing but the intestines and a couple small patches of skin / fur and in the open in the middle of a path /drive way . that's what has me puzzled I did find a spot looked he may have been fighting something bits of fur about 15 feet from the gut pile
like I said I was amazed he made it at least four or five years maybe longer I lost track but its been years of just hanging around the out buildings .
not a big deal just a rabbit but upset the wife as it has been around so long .
I would not even posted except the gut pile has me wondering
Wolverine
if so he is out of his territory , no wonder he need a meal traveling that far
Most likely an owl. I'm a firm believer that birds of prey and their protected status in recent times have decimated upland bird and small game populations.
I have though that also maybe a owl but we have never seen one in the thirty plus years Here but I am sure there around there's a small woods about 1/2 mile away
And being at night ant the small pile of fur llike it was picked pulled out looked like a scuffle not far from the guts
Likely an owl . Just cause you don’t see them doesn’t mean they are not there
Could also be a corn monkey.
Remember old Blue!
Doesn't sound like he's lost....
I have seen where an owl took a rabbits head off and go with it. Just the head. Left the best part of the carcass for other critters.
There are fussy coyotes around my place that leave guts behind. Only during nice weather when game is plentiful though.
No, it is not a corn monkey. Corn monkeys always eat the guts first.
Most likely you have more owls, foxes, and other critters around than you know. In the past I trapped and called for fur, a lot. It would be rare to not call in an owl or several owls when you turned a call on at night. Places people said there weren't fox regularly produced fox. Fox just does not get seen much.
What ever it was probably killed the rabbit at the other spot you seen then moved it to the open lane to eat. That makes me think owl or hawk. A coyote usually wouldn't be worried much about getting stalked, a fox will often eat part of a rabbit then carry the rest off. A bird want to see what around it so it can scoot if a fox, coyote, bobcat etc, comes along so they will often move to an open area to feed. Of course there are also minks and weasels to consider,
I have thought on it I am 99% sure it was a owl . it was a bright full moon the rabbit was sitting in the open . he did that a lot and well dinner was served .
he has avoided all the other wild life for years , so death from the sky he never seen it coming
nanuq907
nice print in the snow tells the story and evidence
was that a eagle flying off with dinner ?
I am a landscaper and I'm in several clients yards daily. I have seen a rabbit head and stomach sometimes with intestines, sometimes with a foot, etc. hundreds of times in the last dozen years. Figured either owl or hawk. Very common this time of year with the first broods leaving the nest.