Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: steve b. on June 24, 2017, 02:53:06 pm
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I need some opinions on what may have happened to a racoon that I recently shot, please.
I live in a rural area and recently had a regular visit to the hen house by a maurading racoon. My wife saw him several times at night and we could see where he was trying to get into the chicken coop. Point being that we only ever saw one racoon. I started going out at different times at night with a gun. We caught him actually in the coop just seconds before he could have done some damage. So I shoot him and toss him outside to be dealt with in the morning. This is at 10 pm.
At 6am I go out and his body is moved from the coop area and onto the lawn, close to the house. He is completely skinned up to his head with the hide still attached there like a cape. only his feet and head still had hide on. There were a couple tuffs of hair laying nearby on the lawn.
What was especially weird to me was that the hide was removed from the legs exactly where you would expect someone to make cuts around the "wrists" on all four legs, just above any pads/claws. And, none of the meat was touched. No marks at all on the now naked body except for an occasional bullet hole.
I assumed some animal did it and i got rid of the carcass. I regret now having not laid out the skin to determine if incisions were made up the legs and belly. I doubt that seriously happened but I also doubt seriously that a coyote or other animal detected that dead racoon and came in and did this just hours after.
There are coyotes around but they never come near the house in the 3 years I've been here. I'm wondering if another racoon would/could do this??
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Is there a teenage boy living anywhere near you? Sounds like it was done by a human. I would think an animal would have started to eat it after ripping the hide off. Do you have a trail camera you could put in your yard?
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The story as told does sound like a human skinned it. Almost sounds like they got to the head and didn't know how to get past the ear, eyes and lips. Rather strange for sure. I've had mink chew a hole in them and eat at them from the inside, but that's not what your describing. Strange
Bjrogg
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Yea that's a mytserious one.Was his tail cut off or skinned out too?If so no animal I know of beside a human does that kind of work on a dead animal.
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Chupacabra ;)
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All good points. I know I can say that it was not a human. The area is remote and not conducive to human traffic. If my some miracle someone passed through they would never have seen the racoon laying there. I use a trail cam regularly and I know the critters around here and where they come and go. Its possible that a coyote happen to be close enough to detect it and just never got to eating it before it got scared off by something. I really wish I had examined the skin/tail etc. I was just taken by the relatively clean cuts around the legs.
I gave up trying to figure it out but my wife had shared the story with several people who were all freaked out by the story and wanted more info, so I told her I'd ask around just to satisfy some curiosities. This site is the only place i know where the members would have more experience with coons than I do.
Thanks for the feedback.
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Do you have any pics of the carcass?
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I've seen rabbits killed by foxes that were skinned in the same fashion with all the skin missing except the head and feet. The only difference from your raccoon was the hide was no longer attached on the rabbits. That might just be a result of how easily a rabbit hide tears compared to a coon.
After a little research, I found that black bears will also peel the hide/fur off before feeding. I think a bear would have been a little more destructive to the carcass and your property.
If you're sure that there's no way a human was around, I'm leaning toward a fox being your culprit. You may have scared him off before he had a chance to start eating.
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I don't have any pics. Yes DK, it has to be something like that where the hide was pulled and simply tore around the legs at the common weak spot. Its really not that bizarre after seeing what you say.
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Are you a sleepwalker? ;D
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Are you a sleepwalker? ;D
Just what I was thinking
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Skin pulled off sounds like a bird of prey. At night and moving a raccoon would be a Great Horned Owl. No idea why he didn't eat at least part of it.