No, this isn’t some spoof thead-thingy. This afternoon I found my favorite pygmy goat “Olive” dead in the pasture. She was the goat-of-my-heart, my absolute favorite. She had been ravaged by predators, I’m thinking coyotes. However, her carcass was covered with fresh grass and sticks, which has me puzzled.
Firstly, I had thought my pastures were coyote-proof. Non-climb fencing with mesh gates. I was wrong. I saw a rub where the predator gained entry/exit under the fencing. But from what I have read online, it seems that only cougars and bears '“bury” their kills. I’m stumped as to what it is exactly; that I want to kill D-E-A-D. Is it a cougar, or coyote? I’m quite depressed at this point, Olive was the main reason I went to barn every day. I shall miss her dreadfully. And yes, I’ve put out feelers for a LGD asap.
A coyote probably wouldn’t have been acting alone and so there wouldn’t be much left. A predator that attempts to cover up it’s kill, to return to later, is a lone predator.
Probably a cougar, they are everywhere now that hunting by hounds has been outlawed in most areas.
In a book I read, Beast in the Garden, it tells about how a deputy answered a call about a body, and found the remains of a missing boy with all his innards removed and replaced with grass and twigs. The lawman was wondering if that was the result of some weird serial killer’s ritual, when he looked up and saw a cougar staring down at him from a tree.
I’m sorry something got your goat. I have a coworker that has a lot of goats that are his pets, he has some livestock dogs, a donkey and recently got a couple llamas because they are supposed to guard goats or at least kick up a fuss if a predator shows up.
Coyotes will bury their prey if they can’t finish it. All the canids do. I’ve heard it theorized that early humans learned to save food for winter by watching wolf packs do it. (No cite, this was years ago in anthropology class.)
If it was just a light scattering of grass, though, it sounds like maybe a coyote was marking its ownership by peeing and then kicking and scratching at the ground. Covering the body with grass leaves might have been incidental.
I’ve never owned an LGD. Have you considered getting a llama for herd protection? I’ve never owned a llama either, I should say. I was just wondering if you’d thought about it. From what I’ve read, it sounds like they can be successful at it. Sort of like those Tom & Jerry episodes where a baby kangaroo turns up and Tom mistakes it for an enormous mouse.
Sorry about your friend. Goats bring a lot of personality to the table.
Chupacabra. What? They’re goat suckers. It’s what they do.
Ok, I have nothing actually helpful to add, but you do have my sympathies. That had to have been terrible.
I have all my critters locked in the barn tonight, just in case. If I thought it was just coyotes, I have all the bases covered. Any points of entry have been eradicated by me and my handyman this afternoon.
I just have a nagging feeling about the covering the carcass with grass/limbs/whatever. That does make me fear a cougar. I can’t keep a cougar out of my pastures, so I have made calls to every dog-industry person I know for some LGDs.
And yes, LGD means Livestock Guardian Dog. I’m going for a pair of them, because I want to make double-damn sure this doesn’t happen again. I’m just heart-broken at the loss of my Olive, she was the sweetest goat ever. I used to walk her down to the non-profit ranch down the road every year for the petting zoo fund-raiser, she was always a big hit with the kiddies. She will be sorely missed.
I didn’t pursue the LGD option initially because I didn’t want to piss off the neighbors with a dog barking all night, every night. But now, all bets are off. I need something with fangs and claws to protect my critters. And if I see a coyote or cougar, they’re SO dead!!! I have a rifle and know how to use it. And a nifty shotgun too.
You will probably get specific recommendations from your dog friends. There are a lot of different LGD-type breeds out there. While there are some smart little herding and guarding dogs, you may be more interested in some of the monster all-weather types who have been bred for centuries for exactly this role.
