If I only wanted the head wouldn't it be faster to take the entire animal with me?? No mess, no evidence and less time on the premises.

Halloween is close. ^^this

Put up some IR game cameras in discreet locations. You will find out what is going on.

Or they flew in.

Not if it’s aliens. They can disable cameras easily, if they want to.

Electric carts and bikes are plenty quiet. If a bike, that much more reason they might have taken on the head - can't carry the whole sheep.



That just does not sound realistic. Foxes beheading adult sheep? They aren't that powerful. As noted here... https://www.business.qld.gov.au/ind...ck/animal-welfare/sheep-health/predators


They would have to chew through all the flesh and hide and then gnaw through the neck bones. That would be extraordinary.

I was referring to the animal taking the head after the animal is killed, not biting it off in one bone crushing bite while it is alive. Yes it would take a smaller animal some time to eat through it, but probably not as long as you would think.

The last time I did predator control trapping, the ranch I was at had lost 100s of barbados to raccoons. They would grab onto the back of the animal and hold on until pulling it down then dog pile onto it. Angelo state university research area who I consulted with during that time was having the same problem. A fox can do the same thing, but like your article mentions normally goes for the underside of the neck. I have cut the head of many a deer with only a few cuts of a knife and never had to crush bone to remove it. And for the record I do think the corsican head was removed with a knife. Note about the foxes we are talking about, it's red foxes, not grey foxes. The only place I have seen and killed them was on a ranch near brady. They may not even be present in whatever part of the state stillhuntr lives, but red foxes in australia are a serious sheep depredation problem in Australia with losses in the millions of dollars so they can certainly kill sheep where both are present.

Not the study I was looking but for more trivia, but I did find this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_sheep_predation
"If the head's bitten off the carcass, it is usually a fox."

https://www.researchgate.net/public...fox_and_dog_predation_on_sheep_and_lambs
"However, the positions of wounds on the body may also assist; due to differences in stature, foxes generally attack from beneath, while dogs from above. Some foxes favour particular body parts (e.g. kidney, brain, tongue, nose) and carcasses may be found with such part/s removed with the remainder intact (P. Murray, University of Queensland, pers comm.). This is generally characteristic, although not definitive, of predation by foxes. "

I think you have a lion. You said you've been losing animals already that are gone without a trace. You really think poachers are going to hike in 2 miles to do that to something that is essentially worthless in the poaching market? I bet it chewed the neck off and took it into cover to feed. If the rest wasn't covered, it may be because you bumped it off the kill the next day before it was ready to hide it. I would take a dog to the kill site and see if you can find a head and spine all picked clean in the brush nearby.

Home, drive way, leads ta road...



Next...

Rabbit. Definitely.

Saw it on monty python once. Take an arm clean off.

Animal sacrifice! Better keep you and neighbors on alert!.....I've heard about this stuff for years around this time of year.

Interesting, but not documentary. The first reference from Wiki seems to be referring to lambs and is without citations. The second reference, as you note, is pers. comm. from P. Murray, and does not mention the removal of the head, just soft tissue. Peter Murray does appear to be a wildlife biologist, but does not appear to have published on this issue. https://hiddenvalewildlife.uq.edu.au/profile/61/peter-murray

I have been reading through articles as well and have not found anything to indicate foxes remove the heads and leave the body behind. At the very best, this would appear to be an exceptionally rare behavior, only documented on the other side of the world...assuming it has actually been documented.

no disrespect to the OP but this is funny "sharp pointy teeth" lmao

''Tizz only a flesh wound

Aliens, they use the ewes head in the worship of their god ewestice.

I don't know the reason, but it sure looks like human work to me.

One of the greatest movies of all time. They just didn't know how to write an ending - it totally sucked.

Someone took the head and neck to make barbacoa. Why drag the whole heavy animal, if all you need is the head and neck.

all this time i been spellen it rong...

When my dad was a kid, my grandparents made him get rid of his dog.
One of my dad's chores was to catch, kill & clean chickens for the family. He always cut off the head & feet first, then tossed them to the dog.
When the family returned from an outing, all the chickens lay dead with only the heads & feet missing.

Maybe you have something similar. Well, except for the feet.

Gents, thanks for all the input ....this board is a wealth of knowledge. And that monty python clip was a blast!

Comes down to This. Seems there is a pack of wild dogs that have entered the area according to local LEOs.
Time to bait.

My brother and I found a freshly severed head of a nubbin' buck, years ago near Cotulla. This head was fresh kilt. Landowner said it was a Mountain lion.

330 conibears will fix things no matter what the issue is.