Turkey CSI

[TonySoprano]

I've never seen anything like it. Something killed , tore up and ate a Turkey right in the front yard the other morning. I noticed it at 8:30 am feathers were all over a 40 yard area. I'm thinking Most likely a Coyote , bobcat or great horned owl.

 

[Westwind]

Caught it in the wide open. Picked it clean next to where it was caught, didn't carry it off. Hawk? Owl?

 

[TonySoprano]

Caught it in the wide open. Picked it clean next to where it was caught, didn't carry it off. Hawk? Owl?

Correct , the carcass is in the wide open , roughly 40-50 yards in front of the house. There were a mess of feathers off to the right also 30-40 yards away. Could be a Hawk or Owl , as I routinely see fur and feathers in the yard, BUT I've never seen a carcass left before. Probably close to 15 years ago when I was going out at 10:30 PM to work night shift , a Owl swooped down right in front of me and I saw it grab a rabbit in my headlights and fly off with it !. If I didn't see it I'd never would have believed it....never saw a owl since.

I'd assume the turkey was killed in the early morning....rougly a hour - hour and a half before I noticed it. it's basically picked clean the head and neck are gone !. Could a owl or hawk eat it that fast ?. I'm leaning more towards a coyote or a couple of them. I get a fair amount of coyote trail cam pics, and sometimes hear them at night....never saw a or got a pic of a bobcat , but a kid who hunted the property next to me claims he saw one. So My guess would be Coyote , hawk or owl .

What's also odd, their was blood on the cement outside my garage door , that make no sense. Either something walked there, or was eating a piece of meat standing on the roof gutter and the blood drpped down ?.

 

[Westwind]

Man I don't know if a hawk or owl could eat that much either. if it got moved around maybe coyotes or bobcat like you said. Of those two I feel like bobcat is better odds but I don't know!

 

[TonySoprano]

Man I don't know if a hawk or owl could eat that much either. if it got moved around maybe coyotes or bobcat like you said. Of those two I feel like bobcat is better odds but I don't know!

Thanks for your input. I have no clue....I'm thinking of putting a camera out tonight to see if anything comes back.

 

[rocksnstumps]

My bet on yote. Have a crappy pic of a yote taking on a tom a number of yrs ago. The night mode on that camera kinda sucked but you can still tell what they are. Found the turkey carcass nearby when checked the camera a week later.

Also when spring turkey hunting have yotes show up multiple times when calling. One time was real close to finally having bird clear some brush for a shot when a yote showed up and treed that bird. Sat up there for hours and finally flew down back way

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I've found a bunch of pheasant carcasses that look just like that over the years in open fields. I've watched hawks zig zag over those fields pheasant hunting and the pheasants are too large to fly away with so they eat them where they land. They pick off all the meat and leave all the legs and wings still attached to the carcass.

I know great horned owls and golden eagles are both good at killing turkeys, so I'd guess they did it. I can't tell from the picture if any bones are missing or crunched. If that's the case, it may have been a coyote. I would have expected a coyote to drag the turkey into cover though as coyotes here get pretty nervous standing in open fields in daylight.

 

[Telemark]

Thanks for your input. I have no clue....I'm thinking of putting a camera out tonight to see if anything comes back.

I'd do that. Maybe it returns to the scene of the crime.

 

[SwampCat]

I would guess a pair of great horned owl in the neighborhood. Two might be able to eat it but couldnt carry it off. Would think a yote or cat would carry it off. Chamberlain did a study one time where he put telemetry collars on some turkeys, coons, skunks, and gray fox. A nesting pair of great horned owls killed them all.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

This reinforces my campaign to thin avian predators when I run for president of wildlife.