strange find.

[baldockbanks courser 598]

went out to bolt a few rabbits for young lurcher today. on a small set my ferret stayed down. now being a bit keen to use my new mk 3 i only gave her 5 or ten mins and started to dig. 12 to 18 inches broke threw to tube. theres a handful of nesting material and then my jill appears.

i lift her and put my hand in tube to see if theres a rabbit backed up. i pulled the foot of a full grown rabbit out half eaten fairly fresh which my ferret must had been chewing.

any one any ideas how it got there a stote or weasle perhaps ?

[Aaron_butcher 17]

Maybe mate, we bolted a stoat the other day. Would have been fun trying to untangle that from a purse net.

[Ideation 8,216]

Anywhere near water? Could be mink?

[tb25 4,627]

could be all the above

Edited September 27, 2010 by tb25

[theferreter 311]

or some bodys lost ferret could be the culperate

[moley1 0]

my [bANNED TEXT] bolted a mink when i was ferreting with him and it slipped straight through the net sharply followed by his gill, she is a hard f****r and glad i was not the mink

 

 

[The one 8,463]

I had much the same with one of my jills last week broke threw stuck my hand in grabbed the rabbit thought this feels a bit wet had a look at it and it was dead and covered in small maggots

[JoeD 24]

I saw on your profile your on the herts border? Where abouts was it that this roughly as I have had the same thing happened to once or twice around the Herts/Beds border. Don't think it's mink as theirs no water about. Might be stoat though as I have seen a couple.

 

JoeD

[scottishlurcher 0]

I've bolted a mink before and thank feck i had the terrier with me

[Mick C. 229]

Someone else could also be doing abit of ferreting

[jf1970 328]

seen a pine martin bolting bunnies last week,do you have any of them?

[JoeD 24]

Someone else could also be doing abit of ferreting

 

Doubt it as this area we ferret is only ferreted by me and the burrow that I have seen this on is within sight of the farmers house so I would highly doubt it was poaching.

 

Joe

[the ratcatcher 1]

the rabbit as many predators including us any number of these could of be the death of this animalsome even eating part or most of it but i have actually seen rabbit eating rabbit another time when up in scotland i was out ferreting i went on this land and the first 6 holes i checked was full of rabbit bones so i gathered my belongings and went to the next farm

[JoeD 24]

the rabbit as many predators including us any number of these could of be the death of this animalsome even eating part or most of it but i have actually seen rabbit eating rabbit another time when up in scotland i was out ferreting i went on this land and the first 6 holes i checked was full of rabbit bones so i gathered my belongings and went to the next farm

 

You sure they weren't just eating the caecotrophes from a dead rabbit? as rabbits will get no nutritional value from meat as they are strict herbivores.

It is a common thing for rabbits to do this.

 

Just saying as I have done 2 years of animal care at college and done a lot on rabbit behaviour and nutrition, and never heard of a herbivore prey animal eating the flesh off of another.

 

Joe

[baldockbanks courser 598]

Someone else could also be doing abit of ferreting

whats with the head bashing? even if some one had how would that explane a fresh eaten rabbit foot. when a ferret lays up it certainlie doesnt eat every morsal of a rabbit even fur n boans just leaving a foot and a bit of flesh in a nest!