What decapitates 3-4 week old lambs?

[royr]

Morning Gents,
Anyone had this problem with 3 to 4 week old lambs, because I have not? These 3-4 week old lambs are the size of a springer spaniel and just as agile.
I've previously seen with the IR and latterly thermal spotters both foxes and badgers take the lambs as they are being born, they either run off with the whole lamb, or decapitate it and run off with the head; have not seen this before with 3-4 week lamb, backbone and ribs chomped? And I do not think it is big dog?
Additionally, 2 days ago a 4 week old lamb was chomped in half and the back end taken. have attached photo.
There are rumoured sightings of Large Cats in this area of Kent - may be a possibility?

Any info' appreciated.
Regards,
RoyR

 

[bbrc]

Ive seen very similar to this, found it to be a pair of dogs in the end

 

[User00025]

Anything escaped from anywhere? The police don't always publicise. Ours didn't when similar happened on the Cotswolds, that was two lynx and they killed bigger lambs. Neighbouring keeper shot one the other was cage trapped.

 

[CarlW]

Morning Gents,
Anyone had this problem with 3 to 4 week old lambs, because I have not? These 3-4 week old lambs are the size of a springer spaniel and just as agile.
I've previously seen with the IR and latterly thermal spotters both foxes and badgers take the lambs as they are being born, they either run off with the whole lamb, or decapitate it and run off with the head; have not seen this before with 3-4 week lamb, backbone and ribs chomped? And I do not think it is big dog?
Additionally, 2 days ago a 4 week old lamb was chomped in half and the back end taken. have attached photo.
There are rumoured sightings of Large Cats in this area of Kent - may be a possibility?

Any info' appreciated.
Regards,
RoyR

View attachment 159355

When older lambs are taken, they have often just died of other causes, and then foxes and badgers have carved up the carcass, making it look like something more exciting is in town.

 

[Hereford]

When older lambs are taken, they have often just died of other causes, and then foxes and badgers have carved up the carcass, making it look like something more exciting is in town.

This is most likely

 

[sikamalc]

Hmm I'm not saying that big cats stalk the woods and fields of Kent. But. I know of at least one instance of a large cat being taken in Kent. Many years back mind. I saw the skin. We have two very large zoos in Kent. Both over the years have had escapees, although not for a considerable time now I might add. This included 3 Barasinga deer, again one of which I cleaned the head of many years back. Another jumped the fence and killed a chap in a car.

I think its probably dogs with these lambs, big cats as a rule would carry a whole lamb off, no issue at all. If they didn't eat it they normally always cover their kill up to come back to, that's unless it is disturbed. Put some camera traps up on the field. If its a dog, you are within your rights to shoot it.

 

[levigsp]

Dogs, otters or foxes if alive when chomped, easy to see at kill site, Badgers foxes if dead.

 

[Freeforester]

Looks like a .270 with a varmint bullet, possibly 300 win mag

Joking apart, assuming the rest of the lambs are relatively healthy, dog/s would be my bet, are you able to sit out a couple nights after the latest kill, you might get a wink of the culprit?

 

[old keeper]

It could be any of the above-mentioned animals, I've seen calve carcasses broken up in a night by both fox and badger. Three to four-week-old lambs don't present much of a problem to any carnivore.

 

[paul o']

Pass but I hope you get to deal with what ever is doing it ? and looking at the front end I can't see any sign of a two dog tug o war .

 

[David.evans]

Yep
in past experience fox will normally take the head
one way is to leave the carcass out and get out with the thermal
pain in the arse I know I’ve had to do it on a couple of occasions
but got the results a few nigh after
good luck

 

[royr]

Thank you Gents,
This Farmer has about 1500 acres of grazing pasture area, some owned some rented, producing in excess of 2000 lambs a year.
Since the first decapitation was found 2 weeks ago I've been requested by this Farmer to investigate, and have basically been there every other night into the early hours with the .223, and installing an IR Trail camera to cover the 2 decapitated lambs, which happened 2 nights apart in different pasture areas. Only foxes were captured on the videos. But the .223 has accounted for 32 foxes. The half chomped lamb happened Saturday night and there was blood spillage /splatter on the dew grass a few feet around it, so I'm tending to believe it was killed and not died of natural causes?
I do think a really big cat could take away the whole carcass weighing around 18-kilo, but a Lynx type size cat would struggle, maybe taking half a lamb, which is what has happened? The Farmer and his son do the daily rounds on quad bike checking all the pasture areas, so know what is happening on a daily basis. Neither have seen dogs among the sheep - daylight hours.
The spine on these 4 week old lambs is thick, but its been chomped though, does not looked gnawed through.
I just do not know what is killing theses lambs, but I'll be back on foxing stake outs and installing the 2 trail cameras to cover the carcasses.
Any one know if a .223 is enough to down a Lynx, given correct shot placement?

Best Regards
RoyR

 

[CarlW]

Any one know if a .223 is enough to down a Lynx?

Big cats are thin-skinned with very sensitive nervous systems. If correctly placed, a .223 will easily kill a lynx.

However, I'll eat my hat if you find one...

 

[270TOMMY]

Hope you get the culprit soon before anymore lambs are killed please keep us informed

 

[FISH BOY]

Sorry got nothing else to add, but interesting to read about something that isn't Covid related.

Hope you find the culprit and report back.

 

[VSS]

When older lambs are taken, they have often just died of other causes, and then foxes and badgers have carved up the carcass, making it look like something more exciting is in town.

Exactly this ^^^^^

 

[landkeeper]

Lambs drop dead from many of the clostridial diseases
Big lambs like that are not normally fox or broc kills although it does happen
Normally if a lamb dies during the night or early morning the 1st thing to go will be the eyes that ones eves look intact so night time kill
If its dog or dogs the flock would be agitated and there wouldnt be single kills in my experience dogs are sloppy and hit multiples
A friend was losing big lambs a few years ago at night it turned out to be an old very large boar badger

 

[bbrc]

Skin it, if it shows bruises it most likely was killed by something if not it probably died and was fed on

 

[caorach]

The bigger cats normally kill things in a specific way - usually a bite to the neck and they either break the neck or throttle the beast. So if a big cat were taking the lambs then I'd expect there to be signs of this especially if you are losing a number of them and so your sample size is larger than one.

 

[Cyres]

The pictue looks very similar to the one in RB 1st foxing book and that was presumed to be a feline, in that case the kill was a previously shot fox.

D