Rabbit entrails - who's the culprit?

[slowworm]

you wont either mate,poachers were recruited by Churchill for his secret army aka auxiliary units, a chap i know locally is quite the woodsman,has been near trod on before now int dark by gamekeepers,i would imagine that the entrails were hid butt some critters dragged them out into view.

Indeed, they can be extremely devious ****, but it's not an area with abundant bunnies and there's plenty of other local areas were they are.

If it's an easier question then, apart from humans what would do what I described. Large semi-stray cats seems to fit the bill.

 

[EssexMonk]

unlike most humans, most animals eat the "soft bits" first IE liver lungs etc the belly is the easiest part to open. could a poacher have left the remains while traveling through on their way from a productive area?

 

[slowworm]

I had thought about that but it's not really on the way or to anywhere. More likely someone may have left the guts there on purpose but although not hidden they were not in an obvious place.

What about buzzards or owls, it is nearish a fence post and I know the local buzzards perch on them. Do birds gut animals, or eat most of their prey and drop the intestines?

 

[fishfish]

buzzards do drop the stuff they dont want ,but ive never seen big bits dropped just small stuff.

 

[santaman2000]

I'm thinking it was some form of rabbit ritual suicide; and the other rabbits hid the rest of the carcass.

 

[deeps]

have a look on youtube for speed paunch videos ?

 

[slowworm]

have a look on youtube for speed paunch videos ?

The one's where you squeeze until everything pops out? That wouldn't leave the tail behind.

I think the Druids would also stop rabbit ritual suicide.

All that's left today was a bit of large intestine, swollen by the rain to the size of a large sausage.

Perhaps the bunny has been gradually picked apart over a day or so and I stumbled upon work in progress?

 

[slowworm]

I know this is an old thread of mine, which I'd forgotten about, but I found something similar a few weeks back. I know the victim and the culprit, surprisingly good handiwork. Any guesses?

 

[PoppyD]

It looks like a rodent but there is no scale for me to properly be seeing . So I am to be assuming it is a wood mouse or vole. Or a brown rat if it’s a larger lump. I think it could be a fox as the doer of the deed. Or it could very well be a buzzard. Domestic cat or stoat could as well depending on the area it’s found.

 

[JonathanD]

Good call. I’m going with brown rat. And fox. As in previous posts and if it’s in woodlands then I’ll rule out domestic cat. Stoat maybe. Buzzard is another good call though. But I’d need to see the area in a larger context to see what grasses where flattened by the predator.

 

[Mandelised]

Thats exactly what my puddy cat leaves. My 1st cat once left me a Kestrel at the front door ......... he was huge ran a sheep dog off the front path once ......

 

[slowworm]

Yes, it's the remains of a large rat. Innards skilfully removed in one piece, four feet cut off at the ankles an piled on top of each other, head chewed off behind the eyes. And although I didn't see the deed our stray/feral cat was snoozing very contentedly about three foot away. I was pleasantly surprised as the cat isn't that big and the work was much neater than I could do.

As for the cat, it is often about and often off for several days in the countryside so I think it's quite likely you'd find similar remains in the woodland and fields around here and elsewhere.

 

[PoppyD]

Ooooo that was very fun. It is one of my favourite things investigating things like this.