Sheep vanishes...

CountryFried · #1 03/05/04, 09:19 PM

This a.m. couldn't find one of the preganant ewes I have. Due in April. We scour the place over to find NOTHING.
Wouldn't a coyote or preditor of some kind leave a trace of fleece or blood....something?? I went up and down wooded hills to see not hide nor hair. I went through briar thickets of pine trees, looked in ravines, creeks. We couldn't find wool on fences , where maybe something drug her through. Completely empy handed....
She's a "wild" Jacob sheep, so I can't imagine someone taking her. I can't even hold her to shear her hardly . So....
Is it possible that coyotes would eat EVERYTHING ?? Someone told us that. Even tho' when we finish dressing out our deer and drag it to the woods, the hide is always left behind.
Any help appreciated....

Sherry

bergere · #2 03/05/04, 10:46 PM

A Cougar could very well kill, and drag or carry her off someplace where it can eat the sheep later. And not leave much of a trace. Have seen it enough times in the past.

The other thing, could it be possible for her to of gotten off your land somehow? Open gate or??

CountryFried · #3 03/05/04, 10:50 PM

We've checked both sides of our property. Looked deep into their woods. Seems like she would be standing at or near the fence separating us.??? Just seems so weird.
I wonder about cougars here in East Tenn. Of course noone admits they are around at all.

bergere · #4 03/05/04, 10:55 PM

I know they are around the Johnson City, TN area over towards the Greenmountain in NC. My family has seen them around.
But none of the officals that have been told about cougars in the area would admit to it either. Sigh ~ ~

CountryFried · #5 03/05/04, 11:02 PM

I was reading in the latest issue of Countryside and how they lost a family member to a awful attack of a cougar, in Ark. Ozark Mnt. area. The law, and fish and game wouldn't DO anything or admit to the presence of a cougar in the area. Go figure.

1farmgirl · #6 03/06/04, 12:19 AM

We've had people near our area of west central AR that had some sheep and goats killed by these none existant cats. I even had a older couple last year from Texas tell us that they watched a black panther walk down the opposite side of the river from where they were camping back in the spring. This was probably about 15 miles south from the sheep and goat killings as the crow flies. And yes, the sheep and goat killings were written about in the local paper and of course, the AR Game and Fish said there was no cats in AR, but there was never a really good explanation of what was killing those animals.

Kathy

countrygrrrl · #7 03/06/04, 07:12 AM

There are big cats in the Oklahoma Ozarks, even though nobody really wants to admit they're here, at least not officially ... so --- well, so it's entirely possible you have them in Eastern Tennessee.

I saw the back of one on my property soon after I moved here.

A lot of people call them panthers, others call them mountain lions, cougars, puma.

65284 · #8 03/06/04, 08:04 AM

I lost a week old Dexter calf last spring, never found hide nor hair. She disappeared from a tightly fenced pasture that is border by several hundred acres of rough woodland. I too searched everywhere, walked my property, and with the owners permission searched the adjoining place on the 4 wheeler. The Missouri Dept. of Conservation denied for years there were wild cougar in the state. Every time some one reported a sighting they were told they had seen a bobcat, dog, large feral house cat, etc. When a deer hunter in the Hannibal area got one on video stalking a deer they tried to explain it away as being an escaped pet. Then last summer there was a road kill cougar in the KC area, and another killed on the road near Fulton, just a few miles from us. After doing some DNA tests, most pet cougars are a South American sub species, and checking the animal's condition and stomach contents they finally had to admit what I suspect they knew all along, there were indeed wild cougar in Missouri. But probably only 2 or 3, yeah right. One in Eastern Mo. caught on video and the other 2 hit and killed by cars, one in Western Mo. and another right in the middle of the state, no doubt that wiped out 2/3 of our resident population of cougars. It is not surprising they are here, deer are everywhere, we saw 4 in the middle of Columbia yesterday. It is not unusual to see them there, and herds of 20 or more are commonly seen in more rural areas.

CountryFried · #9 03/06/04, 08:54 AM

That's what I'm suspecting... something large that could carry a large sheep away without a trace. We have really good fencing , so it makes sense.

Ed Norman · #10 03/06/04, 09:51 AM

I bet it was a bear.

CountryFried · #11 03/06/04, 03:10 PM

Ed, I think your right. We had a bear come in a few years back and destroy a beehive I had been working on all summer. Climbed up onto a 3' high stand , and pushed the whole thing over. Loaded with honey , about 4 supers high. Shoot , I could hardly lift 1 of those full supers. Ate everything ! Wood and all. Then took a big crap beside it. Mostly berries. I wonder if he hasn't come back to call. I'm going on the warpath now.

bgak47 · #12 03/06/04, 07:31 PM

Maybe it was aliens? :haha: More likely a big cat! They are known to carry off their prey. Sorry for your loss.

shadowwalker · #13 03/06/04, 10:16 PM

There are two things I've witnessed. A mountain lion and a coyote will bury a partial eaten kill, to come back later and eat.You might look for this. And if someone wants a animal bad enough they'll find a way to get it, usually to get one or a small group. They'll put feed out in a out of the way spot and just let the animals get used to it. Then in a few days they'll come get them. You might look for a feed spot like this, also.

shadowwalker
Yes, there is also Bigfoot, UFO's, Time/Space Vortexes, Government Testing, Boogieman, and I'm sure more. To help out the more "Enlightened" minds.

CountryFried · #14 03/07/04, 07:16 AM

I should be more careful......next thing is they'll try to do is beam up my kids ! Oh, well, some days that wouldn't be sooo bad.

southerngurl · #15 03/07/04, 07:29 AM

We had a hiefer disappear once. Then we found where the fence had been cut and put back together. This wasn't too long after the owner of ajoining property commented that that was too nice a heifer to butcher....

Once dad and I went camping on some property we own and left our tent up. When dad went back a couple of days later, the tent was ripped to shreds. We had those thick foam things in there we slept on, and a bear ate them. Dad only found a couple pieces of them with bite marks on them. I bet that bear has some real difficulties later. :haha:

#16 03/07/04, 09:50 AM

It could easily have been a bear- theywill pick up a carcass and walk off with it.What they don't eat scavengers will.In a matter of days there will be nothing left at all- not even bones.All you may find is hair or wool, but if the bear took it into a thicket, even that may be hard to see.I was up in the Yukon and a hunter told me they shot a moose, gutted it, and the next morning came back to take it out- but it simply wasn't there- not eaten- a grizzly just picked it up and walked off with it.All they found was footprints- bigger than their boots!They decided not to follow them[ good choice!]

CountryFried · #17 03/07/04, 03:09 PM

Wow - one should watch out for neighbors . How ballsy. And grizzlies are certainly to be respected.

MaKettle · #18 03/08/04, 06:19 PM

Good grief! Cougars and bears. I live 15 minutes from towns and the big old city. We have coyotes, 4 wheelers, and neighbors dogs as the main predators. We have no bears or cougars. We do have lots of deer and wild turkeys. They can hide very well. Neighbor lost a few of his hair-type sheep, and although he got a few back, the others disappeared into the rqvines and have never been seen again. Wiley critters who do not want to live with people have a way of fading into the background. Your sheep may be still out there, but, being a "wild" Jacob, may just not be making his presence known.

CnySolar · #19 03/08/04, 08:16 PM

She is due in April? Could she have just wandered off somewhere to Nest? Under a building or something close by that you haven't noticed yet?

Brian

CountryFried · #20 03/08/04, 09:56 PM

Dear CnyS.
You hit the nail on the head. After about 4 hrs of search over 2 days, we were able to flush her with 3 people combing a large hill covered with thick pines .

She did indeed have a lamb in tow !! We are estatic, just like new parents ! The 45 acres was alot harder to cover that I thought, and it appears there are alot of places to hide.

As for the due date- she's a full month early. Seems her and little brother must've hooked up before the trade for the new ram. He wasn't but 6 months old. I didn't think he was viable.

I do appreciate all the responses to the question above, and am writing it all down for future reference.

Thanks everyone!