Found Decapitated Turkey & Partridge Today

This is typical mustelid behavior. That is either a mink, a fisher or one of his larger relatives. These often kill prey that is quite large compared to themselves, and will eat the head and drink the blood, leaving the rest. Sometimes they will kill several chickens or ducks, etc, and leave them untouched, just like they killed for the sheer pleasure of the kill, without needing it for sustenance. While the larger owls will kill birds up to the size of a smaller chicken, they would not normally bother a turkey. Regards, Eagleye
 
pharaoh2 said:
The body is on your porch with no head, and the body is not touched? Sounds like a two legged varmint if you ask me.
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That was also my first thought, But after further inspection I would have to agree with those who suggested that it might be a member of the mustelid family... The culprit has been spotted in the past by family members and I'm now pretty sure it was a mink.

Anyone have any tips for trapping the little weasel?
 
We had something get into our pigeon coop a few years ago and do that. Killed all the birds and ate their heads. We never did figure out what did it. We figured some member of the weasel family.
 
eastwind said:
Mink?
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Weasels do it. sometimes they just puncture the jugular and not another mark on the bird, but sometimes they take the head away. Turkey is a big bird for a weasel but might be within the capabilities of a mink.

As for the 2 legged varmints - if there are a few loose feathers or blood indicating drag marks on the ground - then i would rule out human varmints. Most of the usual suspects (medium or small dogs, racoon, mink, lynx) in the animal world would have to drag the turkey somewhat. Birds that get dragged lose feathers. A drag trail would rule out 2 legged varmints, but the lack of a drag trail might just mean the feathers blew away in the wind.
 
I have had mink knock off chickens and ducks like that (cleaned out my trout pond, too). Also, I hear owls are known to decap critters.

Solutions for mink - make friends with a trapper; owl ?????
 
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