what animal kills rabbits and takes the head?

I tend to think a animal in the weasel family, such as ermine, fisher, marten etc. The reason I say this is from my experience raising rabbits and what I have seen in the woods as a trapper and hunter. Weasels bite the neck and then will chew on the head of squirrels, chickens and rabbits. Owls are also known to eat just the head. But with owls there will be talon wounds in the back of the animal. So if the carcass has no wounds and the head is chewed off its likely a weasel. I had one get into my rabbit pen and it left two dead rabbits without heads. If the dead rabbit has teeth marks on the body it could be a raccoon, cat or fox which bite the animal any place it can. But foxes usually eat the whole rabbit or take it off and stash it for later. Cats such as lynx and bobcat bury any remains to eat later. Raccoons will often eat the head and upper body.

I found a few dead squirrels minus heads near a marten den when I was trapping. And the tracks were clearly marten.

Anyway my vote is a weasel.

http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/...

I think The "Bear" has the closest answer so far. From my several years experience running a trap line several years ago, it was very common to find a number of our muskrat catches missing ONLY their heads. The culprit turned out to be MINK! Weasels are considerably smaller than a mink, but will gladly and willingly take on rabbits and other prey larger than themselves. Heaven help us if weasels and other larger members of their general family were the size of grizzly bears or African lions. Consider that the largest of the weasel family is the wolverine. Cottontail rabbits become easy prey for most members of the weasel family, especially mink. We found the cause of our headless muskrats by setting additional traps around the muskrat trap which in turn produced occasional mink as well. We never caught anything but mink using that method. And when we thinned out the mink population in an area, the number of missing heads on our muskrat catches was reduced to almost none. That's why I am convinced your problem is ALSO mink related. Good luck.

What Eats Rabbits

Domestic cats would be my guess. Or one of the small wild cats.

I say domestic cat for two reasons: the fat in the brain tissue is the best part of the animal so far as a cat is concerned. Dogs feed by sense of taste - cats feed by sense of smell - and the smell of the fat is what that have been genetically predisposed eat by nature. Second - a wild cat would not just eat the head - it would eat the head first, and then most of the body. Only a fat, happy, cat that is feed daily by a human will only eat the head and not bother with the rest of the animal.

If you want to catch this cat - go borrow a live catch trap from your local animal control office - and put half a pouch of cat food in it. Be sure to use a little wax paper on the trap parts that touch metal to metal so it move nice and slick.

Good Luck.

My little dog found a rabbit head in the yard and brought it inside; I know she did not kill the rabbit; she is too slow. But! We do have a mating pair of weasels (and by now, little weasels) in the yard, so I suspect they are the culprits.

If i found a suffering animal i might do each and every thing to alleviate it somewhat is discomfort. In different words, if no longer something might artwork, and the poor animal became into suffering horribly, i might kill it. I doubt i might desire to truly take a hammer to it somewhat is head although... no longer that i'm asserting the guy who did it became into incorrect. I basically does no longer have the skill. i might get my dad too.

I have a cat who catches a variety of rodents such as rabbits, rats, mice, squirrels, moles and voles. He always eats the head first. I think he likes the brains.

I just found a headless rabbit in the back yard where my dog run is. My dog likes to chase squirrels, and frogs, but never saw her chase a rabbit. Then I was thinking why would she eat the head and not tear it up? I did find a small hawk feather a few feet away, but I think hawks would go for the stomach area first. We do have Great horned owls in the area, but not mink or lynx that I know of. Head was just gone , but the rabbit was not torn apart of scratched up. Right outside the door, but no one noticed it until this evening. seemed like it was killed awhile ago though.

Elmer Fudd

A feral or even a domestic house cat will do this. And believe it or not, I have seen a mink do this on occasion.