Duck killer is probably a Bobcat....

A little update on the dead duck...As I mentioned in my previous post the duck had been buried under a pile of leaf litter in the woods not far from the pen...On closer inspection the scratch marks look a lot like that a cat would make when burying its scat...but a very large cat to have been able to take my 9 pound duck.

So I got online and did a little research and from what I read it looked to me like a bobcat was the responsible party...Since it was over the weekend I had to wait till today to be able to talk to one of the wildlife biologists from the Florida Dept of Fish and Wildlife about what I had found...I described to him what I had found and seen over the weekend and he confirmed my suspicions that we more than likely have a bobcat in the area again...Neighbors had to kill one about 6 to 12 months ago for killing their life stock...Which turns out to be fortunate for us because they have offered us the use of their traps and motion camera...I also sent the biologist photographs I had taken of the "duck mount" to see what he thought...Waiting to hear back from him on those.

We had thought about a year ago we had seen something that "could" have been a bobcat passing through our old backyard...Now we are pretty certain we did...Around that time we had been losing chickens and it would tie into the time frame when the neighbors were having trouble.

I hate the idea of having to kill it but it is to much of a dangerous animal to leave roaming our property...I am also worried for our outside cats and even my 11yr old dog...Maybe with my reinforced chicken pen preventing it getting anymore food it will move on to else where...Let's hope so and that we have seen the last of it.

On with some good news...I am running right on schedule with my Thanksgiving prep work...Helped I put Sara in daycare today instead of tomorrow...I plan to share photos of my table tomorrow will yall...The thrift store plates look so pretty :)

Kelsie