What happened to this rabbit?

TLB

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Jan 6, 2015
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I grew up in G'ville, more of a city boy than a country person, by far. As such, I'll admit ignorance to a lot of wildlife interactions. As such, I was presented recently with an interesting set of entrails in my front yard recently and I'm hoping some of you may have insight into wtf I found and how it happened.

For those unaware, I currently live in a well populated suburb in PA. There are still wild creeks and woods scattered within a mile radius, but their minimal and thoroughly surrounded by housing developments. I've seen a fox on our street one morning at about 5am, but that was several years ago. We do have several rabbits in our neighborhood, but no other animals of note. No neighborhood dogs running around, a few indoor/outdoor cats, but haven't seen any in months. I have no idea of the bird population. The neighbors don't strike me as vegans, but I doubt their guilty of this...but, who knows.

I came home the other day and the wife said there was something hideous in the front yard for me. Of course, my daughter was having a half dozen 12-13y old girls sleep over that day and their all playing out front with the wife shooing them away from it. I get there, and I can clearly see the remains of an animal. In all, there is a pile of intestines, a colon, a pile of poop (too large to have come from a rabbit, and not looking like poop but more of a gelled puddle), and one lone forearm with fur still on it (hence recognizing this used to be a rabbit). What struck me most was the cleanliness - there was no blood anywhere, or vomit as if ejected from an early meal; and there were no other traces of the event such as fur, bones, other body parts, or any sign of a struggle. Just those entrails, incredibly clean and understandably left behind. Understand, I also don't know how long these have been left in the yard, this could have been a day before at most, allowing for this full day of sunlight or bugs to clean things up a bit, but it was eerily clean and there were no signs of bugs or secondary vulture effects.

Can anyone help me understand how ONLY those parts would have been left, with no trace of anything else? What would have done this to the rabbit?
 

Fodderwing

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Feb 2, 2017
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Coyote, based upon the "poop" at the scene.

Fox is another possibility.
 

bradgator2

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I’m with @Fodderwing , my money is on a coyote. We have a lot here in No. Ga. Even in the heavily suburban areas.

We have them here and those nasty fukers shiit on my driveway. I am surrounded by several hundred acres of pasture.... but they chose my driveway to crap.
 

Gator By Marriage

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We have them here and those nasty fukers shiit on my driveway. I am surrounded by several hundred acres of pasture.... but they chose my driveway to crap.
Never took the time to look it up here in Ga. , but when I lived in Tennessee, they were considered varmints and could be shot on site.
 

ThreatMatrix

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Reminds me of a story we use to tell at bars:
One day I came home to find my dog in the back yard with the neighbor's pet rabbit Fluffy in it's mouth. Fluffy was obviously dead. I freaked out. My neighbors were always bytching at me that my dog was trying to get in their yard to get the rabbit and now it looked like their worst fears were realized. Thinking quick I washed the rabbit, blew it dry and snuck over the fence and put Fluffy back in it's cage hoping the neighbor would just think that it died from natural causes. I got a beer out of my fridge and sat back on my porch marveling at my ingenuity. I heard my neighbors car pull up and a few minutes later, then her back door open. Then a horrible high pitched scream. I leaned over the fence to ask innocently what was wrong. Sobbing the neighbor says "We thought Fluffy had died last night so we buried her, but I guess she wasn't really dead and the poor thing dug her self out of her grave and even managed to get back in her cage but the trauma must have been too much".
 

crosscreekcooter

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Reminds me of a story we use to tell at bars:
One day I came home to find my dog in the back yard with the neighbor's pet rabbit Fluffy in it's mouth. Fluffy was obviously dead. I freaked out. My neighbors were always bytching at me that my dog was trying to get in their yard to get the rabbit and now it looked like their worst fears were realized. Thinking quick I washed the rabbit, blew it dry and snuck over the fence and put Fluffy back in it's cage hoping the neighbor would just think that it died from natural causes. I got a beer out of my fridge and sat back on my porch marveling at my ingenuity. I heard my neighbors car pull up and a few minutes later, then her back door open. Then a horrible high pitched scream. I leaned over the fence to ask innocently what was wrong. Sobbing the neighbor says "We thought Fluffy had died last night so we buried her, but I guess she wasn't really dead and the poor thing dug her self out of her grave and even managed to get back in her cage but the trauma must have been too much".

How odd.
 

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