Yeah idk. I got her caught and her baby too. The pen is shorter than the fence by a bit.
Murray, was the dead calf alive when it was born? Do you know for sure that an animal killed it? Was there evidence that "coyotes/birds whatever" killed the calf? It is not nice to wildlife to blame them if they weren't actually to blame. Check out the scientific review on my website (www.judyhoy.com) that my colleagues and I just had published in the prestigious scientific journal, Chemosphere. The wolves in the Yellowstone ecosystem were blamed for killing 5000 elk before the first 14 wolves were released from the pen and then kept being blamed for the elk declines. Humans were to blame for the elk and other wild ruminant declines, not the wolves.
Cool website, Judy. When I was in college (I majored in Fish & Wildlife Biology) I was involved with some studies conducted by the school regarding declining rabbit and quail populations in Ga. The popular belief by the public was that it was cased by the predators they had evolved with and lived and thrived with for 100,000 years before Ga was settled: Bobcat, fox, birds of prey, etc. And secondary was coons and possums eating eggs and the young, and fire ants. And the new-to-Ga, at that time ,( early to mid 70's) coyotes. And feral hogs. What the study revealed, of course, was that loss of habitat was the number one factor in the decline. And the number one predator? Actually there are two: Feral dogs and cats. I have never seen coyotes kill a healthy calf or seen evidence of it. They will eat dead ones, and sometimes they may start in on downed one a few minutes before it would have drawn its last breath. But, I have seen cattle killed, or maimed, by roaming packs of feral dogs.
Calf was 2 or 3 months old at the time of disappearance.
Sounds more like rustlers to me. Never seen a coyote that could eat hjde, bones, skull, hooves etc. If not rustlers, then alien abduction?!!
Mountain lions? They're around here so I suspect you have them as well. They'll either bury their kill or hide it in a tree. Seriously, look up. Game Warden & DNR told that to a guy that lives about 10 miles south of us because he was losing calves, and he did find one in a tree.
That would've been one of the LAST calves anyone would've wanted to steal over there!
The thought occurred to me, @J Hoy may have been talking about the first calf i lost. It was definitely coyotes. That cow would let anything near her calf. I tag and band hers with her standing there watching. Never an issue. TOO gentle. Or not motherly enough I guess. I believe I posted pics of that one.
