Birds or Weasel?

[HunterDave]

I check my snares daily but couldn't yesterday due to other commitments. I figure that I caught this guy Thursday night. I've had birds peck dead coyotes before but not to this extent (Maybe because of the daily checks). I'm wondering if this hole wasn't caused by a weasel. There seems to be a lot of meat missing inside. Thoughts?

Very nice thick fur.....too bad about having to sew it.

[KegRiver]

Shrew, Mice and or Weasel, in that order.

Shrews do that a lot, Mice do it sometimes, Weasels rarely do it.

[Red Bullets]

What keg said.

[Flight01]

Yeah. I'd say shrew. Many rabbits end up that way.

[Gboe8]

That's no good Dave I have never had that and I'm doing lots of three day checks once it's cold enough. Lost two to birds last year and that's it.

[HunterDave]

Thanks fellas. Yeah, it most definitely wasn't a bird. The hole goes way in deep and the flesh is right off the bone. The reason that I thought that it might be a weasel is that someone on this forum told me that he had a hole in a coyote and when he got near it a weasel jumped out of it like that critter in the movie Alien. Scared the hell out of him!

I actually nudged the coyote with my foot thinking about that.

[nube]

I had one like that Dave. It was a shrew. I spent weeks trying to catch him after I brought the yote home and had it in my garage..... They don't trap like a mouse lol Basically found him dead in some hunting cloths in the spring but he caused a mess.

[HunterDave]

Well, that was a first for me. The little bugger ate most of the front part of the leg and burrowed right into the intestines!
Gonna have to put out some weasel boxes and try to catch it I guess.

[Sooner]

Cool thread, I never would have guessed a shrew would be such a meat eater.

[H380]

Too bad about the damage Dave , not a big hole but in a bad spot . As you say we've all had bigger damage from birds . Hoping it doesnt happen again this year like last { 4 times } but I'll post pics if it does this year .One thing Ive learned is if I have a bird damaged coyote I dont leave it near my snaring site , it just seems to train em to eat all caught dogs .

[KegRiver]

Originally Posted by nube

I had one like that Dave. It was a shrew. I spent weeks trying to catch him after I brought the yote home and had it in my garage..... They don't trap like a mouse lol Basically found him dead in some hunting cloths in the spring but he caused a mess.

Shrews are easy to deal with.

Take a Beer bottle, drop a hunk of meet in it, lay it on it's side next to the set.
It should be angled up a bit, maybe 15 or 20 degrees. The neck needs to be level with the snow or leaf litter so the shrews can get in easily.
They'll find it no problem and when they go for the gait they will find they can't climb out. The sloped neck is too slippery for them and they can't get a purchase on the glass.

We used to do that where they were consistently causing damage. Some times we would find four or five in the bottle.
If they were still alive we would release them a couple of miles from the set but most weren't.

They starve to death in as little as 12 hours and they kill each other.
Dang things are actually poisonous. They can kill a rabbit with that poison.