Headless Mallard Mystery

[Dutchess]

Originally Posted by lance morgan

this bird appears to have flown backwards in ever decreasing circles until eventually you see the results before you

rofl!!!! :d :d

d.

[Yaffle]

I'd also say this was a fox attack, I have found several corpse like this including an adult swan.

[Pat]

I've seen several headless rabbits just lately and a couple of months ago in two separate incidents about half a mile apart there were the headless bodies of a cat and a rther large dog, I would have thought this would put pay to the fox theory.

[1957split]

I'd say fox, we had a small holding [inner city] geese, chickens, ponies the norm really. Visiting one morning the heads had been bitten off the geese but bodies left, we'd always seen foxes around so put the chickens away, we presumed the geese could take care of themselves [evidently not]

[Bug Lady]

My first thought is Fox, I've seen the same happen to chickens, when I used to breed rare breeds, I've come back during the day to find numerous headless birds after a fox attack.

I'm not sure why Foxes hunt in this way, I'm sure any of us would not begrudge them one single bird, but the mass slaughter is not acceptable. Do they do it when teaching youngsters to hunt ???

[Pat]

But what about the dog??? Dogs have been known to kill foxes ( nothing to do with hunting ) but I've never heard of a fox killing a dog.

[Pam_M]

It seems weird to me that the body has been left and just the head taken! Surely if it where a fox doing it for food it would take the whole bird? I am puzzled and confused by all this.

[jules357]

I'm still puzzled too Pam - the Fox seems to be the most popular explanation but and I cannot work out why the surrounding area was so 'clean' i.e. absolutely no feathers around, no blood, that's why I wondered if it was done by a human? Someone suggested it cold have been the results of a 'neck pull', perhaps for mercy if the mallard was injured. I'm not familiar with this - does that mean you actually pull the neck off? I thought you would just break the neck to kill an injured animal?

[Pam_M]

Originally Posted by jules357

I'm still puzzled too Pam - the Fox seems to be the most popular explanation but and I cannot work out why the surrounding area was so 'clean' i.e. absolutely no feathers around, no blood, that's why I wondered if it was done by a human? Someone suggested it cold have been the results of a 'neck pull', perhaps for mercy if the mallard was injured. I'm not familiar with this - does that mean you actually pull the neck off? I thought you would just break the neck to kill an injured animal?

That is what also puzzles me, jules! Surely there would be some blood spilt if it ws beheaded where it was found? A friend told me recently that a fox will (perhaps only sometimes) bury it's prey to rot down for awhile before eating it! If this is so then why didn't the fox take it and bury it? Oh, so many questions!

[1957split]

The fox left all our geese whole, didn't find the heads?

The fox could have killed it somewhere else and for some reason left the body where you found it.

I have had to put a few birds out of their misery [road accidents mostly or cats], I'm quite a big guy and it's something I hate doing so I make sure it's hard and quick enough that it's over in an instant, never pulled a head off

Before I'm condemmed my Mother was secretary for the RSPCA all my childhood life, we had every injured animal in a 20 mile radius brought to our house. My mother could save a lot of them but some were beyond saving, I'm talking 30+ years ago and we didn't have all the animal rescue places set up then.

I'd rather dispatch an injured bird than walk away leaving it a long and slow death, never makes me feel good though and would rather not find one