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Gross warning - ID dead dismembered mouse?

IlikeplantsIlikeplants Posts: 894
in Wildlife gardening
It’s small and has been halfed somehow. Is it a mouse? Rat? I don’t know if a bird or neighbouring cat got it.

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 82,771
    Hard to gauge the size, but I’d say that was a young rat … the naked hairless tail is an ID feature. 
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I agree - we see a lot of these because our neighbours store hay and straw and horse feed just a few yards from our house. It's not attractive to find these remains, but much better than having live rats.
  • IlikeplantsIlikeplants Posts: 894
    It was tiny, see the bird poop above it and that’s not fur below the head, that’s it’s exposed gut body part so can’t see what fur colour it would have been. I haven’t seen any cats in the garden for years, touch wood, so what could have killed it? I was hoping it wasn’t a baby rat.
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    I'm  not sure what would kill a baby rat other than a cat, leaving the head and guts in that way. Bear in mind, rats and cats are often most active when we are tucked up in bed. You may not want cats in your garden but you CERTAINLY don't want rats!
  • ElferElfer Posts: 329
    Don't think cats would eat a rat though. Could be an owl or a fox.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 82,771
    edited June 2021
    Our farm cats ate rats ... well, the tender bits ... they''d leave the bony bits.  A fox or an owl would both have swallowed that whole.  
    I think those bones will have been picked clean by slugs overnight. 
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







  • BijdezeeBijdezee Posts: 1,484
    I Vote baby rat, as Dove says, it's the tail that speaks volumes. We get a lot of shrews, voles and field mice and none of them have tails like that. 
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 7,950
    Magpies will eat baby rats.  I've watched one doing so...
    "The one who plants trees, knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life."  Rabindranath Tagore
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    So they do - but do they leave the head and trousers? I'm  still thinking rat and cat.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 82,771
    Yes, Magpies and other corvids will pick away at the soft flesh and leave the rest.  
    Do you have gulls in the area?  They'll pick up semi-eaten corpses and fly with them, then if other gulls mob them they'll drop their breakfast ...
    “I am not lost, for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.” Winnie the Pooh







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