Preditor attack. What did this?

[blackie's maiden]

Found female goat in pasture this morning. Head completely detached but near carcuss. Eyes gauged or.eaten out. Stomach opened enough to eat entrails. Rest of carcus looked untouchex. What could have done this?

[Nanno]

Yikes! I'm so sorry this happened! That had to be a very traumatic discovery. I'd feel positively sick to my stomach if I found one of my goats like that.

Coyotes maybe? They often eat only entrails and leave the rest. I'm not sure why the head was detached, but carrion birds would have taken the eyes. The severed head thing is just plain weird. I'm getting chupacabra vibes!

[blackie's maiden]

Either I missed it the first time or something came.back during the day and ate the meat off.the front legs only from the knees down. The neck, even neck bone was completely gone so i guess they ate that too. Her collar laid right there too, no blood stains. Maybe she died first, i don't know. I read that the way you tell if an animal was killed.by preditor.vs one dying first and then scavanged is whether or not there are blood stains. We didn't see any. She was one.of.our older goats.but yesterday seemed fat and healthy.

[blackie's maiden]

Thanks, Nan. Maybe. We have coyotes galore. I just can't imagine our guard dogs allowing that to happen, one is so devoted to those goats. And we have never before lost one to a preditor because our male is so diligent. But he's getting pretty old.

[Charlie Horse]

Oh man. Well, you could always leave the body where it was and see what comes back to the scene of the crime.

[Taffy]

Geez, you guys just can catch a break!

If you don't have a trail camera or other way to record a photo or video you could always spread a bag of flour on the ground around the body to show the footprints.

I've never heard of a coyote completely decapitating a goat but I guess it's possible.

I hope you can trap/kill whatever it is before it kills anymore of your goats.