Dead animals in garden, how?

[WeaselsRising]

We've been hearing baby foxes in the garden for a couple of weeks now.

Last week I found a baby fox dead on our path. No sign of injury and looked perfectly healthy, except that it was dead. DH buried it as deep as he could to stop anything digging it up.

DD has just come in from the garden in a state because there is a head just outside the back of the house. I haven't inspected it closely but it's a small head, probably another baby fox. I was out there this morning getting rid of cat food and didn't see it then, and I've been sitting near the back windows pretty much all day.

Cats can obviously get into the garden but there are no dogs nearby. No people can get in without us seeing. A magpie was out there this morning eating the cat food but didn't go into the area where the head is.

Any idea what is killing these babies and how? How does just a head get this far up our garden? Would the mother kill them at this age?

Without wanting to worry you, and I could be entirely wrong, but I think you should probably contact SNARL and make them aware of this

@Justonedayatatime11 Why? What do you think it is.

SNARL? Those the nutters that think there’s some weirdo killing cats?

Any dead animal can be scavenged and dragged about. When bodies start to rot they pull apart easier so it’s likely that the animals died at the same time and decomp has set in.

Badgers are quite vicious if you have any of those about. Think that’s more likely than a human.

Do they appear the have been ‘placed’ for you to find them OP?
I’d contact SNARL and possibly log it with 101 too.

Are you sure the second head isn't the first head that has been dug up? They can dig like buggery.

We often find dead animals in our garden, foxes and even a couple of badgers, but we do live in the sticks. Wild animals quite often take ill and die - survival of the fittest.

Various possibilities here www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/animals/article/red-fox-predators

Diana why do you think SNARL are ‘nutters’?

I think you need to put lyme down when you bury and animal to make it rot down quickly.

Mink?

Another fox maybe. It's not common but rival females or males may attack cubs. Other animals incl. Birds may then be moving the remains about. Or, the cubs could have an illness, are dying and other animals moving them about. If you are dumping cat food outside, you probably have a lot of animals out there, even if you can't see them.

Snarl posted this just yesterday... I have no reason to believe they're nutters 🤷‍♀️

I suppose it could be that the vixen was killed (run over maybe) and then some of the smaller predators including cats might have killed the cubs.

If you're urban then could rats be a possibility? Disease? Dropped by a crow... If you're in the sticks then there's all sorts of means critters out there.

Snarl are not nutters.

Get in touch with SNARL. We had a spate of cats being injured (ears cut off) and killed in my area and they were brilliant. Police have arrested and charged someone for it due to their information.

They are absolutely not nutters.

I'm serious about mink btw. There was a turf war last spring between our KFC foxes (very tame and well fed) and some gang of Mink. Violent little sods.

Right I've just been out to check. The first one definitely hasn't been dug up; DH put a birdbath on top of it which is still in situ and no ground has been disturbed. This one is definitely another fox cub but no sign of a body anywhere.

We are in urban SW England so no eagles, deer or similar. Haven't seen any evidence of badgers. I wouldn't swear to it not being humans except that I'm pretty sure nobody could get into the garden unless they climbed from NDN's garden, and I can't see why they'd do that. (easier to place it by their door).

Maybe it's other foxes then, or possibly owls. Thanks for everyone's input. DH thought the first one was down to cats?

@WeaselsRising my first thought was probably cats. My old cat used to bring me nice heads and a present.

It's much more likely to be animals than humans.

My first thought was mink. They tend to leave the head only behind or if it's a bird, head and wings.

I would think the Vixen has been killed and cats or something have found the cubs :(

Many people don't like foxes and will go out of their way to kill them any way they can. Poison maybe for the first one. I had contact with SNARL a few times, they are not nutters and if there is a head left I would contact them if I were you because it has been known for animals to be decapitated or mutilated in some other way and returned to gardens, including back gardens and ones that are considered impossible to access.

Just be warned OP, typical fox litter is 5 cubs. If the vixen has been killed, you may find a few more over the next few days so might be a good idea to do a scan of the garden before DD goes out. Poor little mites.

SNARL certainly aren't nutters . But given there has been a large number of similar incidents, I don't think it would hurt to contact them, if only to make them aware.

I thought that cat killer thing had been debunked.