Critter ate a turkey

[Marc]

So I head to my late morning spot after hunting a different spot this morning.  I note a dead hen (freshly killed and eaten) at the exact tree I was sitting on my previous hunt last week.  Bird was killed about 50 yards from where it was consumed by the looks of things (pile of feathers with a notable trail of feathers to where the bird was eaten)...

I have actually jumped a lion in this spot, but also have seen bobcats and coyotes chasing turkeys (called both in to turkey calls the last couple seasons)...  Bird almost completely consumed, and I could see the tendons hanging off the leg bones.  Small portion of the body cavity bone was left, but everything else was gone.

I do not think a bobcat or a coyote could consume a whole turkey at one sitting, nor do I think they would move a turkey...  Maybe two coyotes?  My guess is mountain lion.

Sure made me nervous sitting in the woods making turkey sounds...  I did pick a different tree, and I was very cognizant of choosing a tree that was wide enough that something could not jump on me from behind (no sitting against a fallen log today).

I was working a bird, that was gobbling, and actually thought I had a chance...  Actually worked two different birds, both got a lot closer and then shut up never to be heard or seen again.

[renegade19]

Bigfoot.....

[Marc]

Bigfoot.....

Often times when turkey hunting, I think I would have a better chance with a bigfoot.

[Rzrbac]

Coyote could easily eat a hen. I'm no predator expert but it's not unusual to see a bobcat around turkeys.  No experience with lions but most felines will cover their kill and coyotes won't.


I'm also not sure what a Sasquatch will do with their kills

[TauntoHawk]

Where there is one coyote there is always more, I've seen them nearly destroy an entire deer over night. And they like to drag their food off

Cats like to cover their food

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[Marc]

Coyote could easily eat a hen. I'm no predator expert but it's not unusual to see a bobcat around turkeys.  No experience with lions but most felines will cover their kill and coyotes won't.


I'm also not sure what a Sasquatch will do with their kills

I know that bobcats and coyotes will kill and eat turkeys, but this thing was eaten literally to the bone.  I suppose a hen turkey is doable though.

It is my understanding that a mountain lion only caches its kills when there is still left something to eat.  Whatever killed this bird ate almost all the bones...

This particular ranch probably has more predators than any other ranch I have hunted...  I have called in coyotes and bobcats while turkey hunting (both very close), and as mentioned I jumped a mountain lion last year...  It was hanging out in an abandoned mobile home (which we cannot figure out how someone got it there in the middle of nowhere)...  I poked my head in the thing just to check it out, and I startled the cat that was in there....  It startled me to the point that I just took off my underwear and left it there.

I can see where cats would have some success killing turkeys, but I have a hard time believing that dogs kill many...  The bobcats I have called in, have always surprised me (they are just there, and they are close), whereas, I have been aware of the yotes (at least the ones I have seen) from some distance off.

[Ozarks Hillbilly]

I say what you found was done by coyotes by your discription. As far as if they caught and killed the hen who knows.

[rpinks]

My understanding is yots mate for life till they lose one. This time year probobly pairing up due to mateing season very teritorial like geese. Probobly was a pair who ate her.

[High plains drifter]

I have seen a big foot, way up in the pintlars.New a guy, who was almost killed by a mountain lion.

[austinc]

I've done a good bit of trapping and 90% the time a cat will bury it's food in leaves and dirt and come back in a couple days. Granted this is bobcats around here. Coyotes can and will catch turkeys and it very well could have been more than one coyote working together. One of my favorite memories while bow hunting deer I saw a coyote snatch a kitten coon up and take off. The rest of the kits went up a tree and the sow coon chased that coyote for over 300 yards across a hay field trying to get her youngun back.

[mgm1955]

Bigfoot.....

[Farmboy27]

A coyote would have no problem eating a whole turkey. I've seen a pair eat over half a deer in one night.

[Player]

With those mountain lions around I don't think I'd try reaping...

[Marc]

I think you are being over cautious right now.

That lion will wait to you forget about him before he jumps you.

I do not really worry about it often...  But, my best two lion sightings were both turkey hunting...  Last year was as close as I ever want to come to a big cat, and I was extremely glad there was a large back window for that cat to escape from. 

And hunting lion country, I do walk out with a loaded gun...  I do so safely and with caution, but I do not see walking out into the woods with a loaded gun as being any more overly cautious than having a loaded gun in the house for self-defense; I will likely live my whole life without ever having to use the weapon in either case...  But... I would rather have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it.

I have had a bobcat jump up on the same fallen log I was sitting on (several years back now), and after that experience, I have always avoided sitting against a fallen log, or anything that a large cat can come up and over to get me...

One of the things I really enjoy about turkey hunting is wildlife biology and being schooled in nature...  I see a dead turkey, and wonder what killed it.  Last year we watched a bobcat run off a turkey that was coming into us, and after the failed attempt at the turkey he killed a squirrel.

I have had interactions with foxes, coyotes, and bobcats while turkey hunting...  As much as I do not want to see other predators competing for the same turkeys I am hunting, I always find these interactions interesting.

As mentioned above, I have to wonder how coyotes would ever be successful killing turkeys?  I almost always know about them long before they know about me...  I have had bobcats just appear right in front of me, and they are almost always a surprise (I usually spot them fleeing from a close distance probably after scenting me).

And speaking of scenting me, that will be my defense against a mountain lion...  NO more deodorant...  The wife is not on board with that strategy yet though.

[dublelung]

A coyote and a bobcat could easily consume a turkey at one sitting. Regardless of how much was left of it though a bobcat would've made an attempt to scratch leaves and debris over the carcass unless it was scared off while eating it. I don't know what killed the turkey you found but it sounds like coyote coyotes ate it.