>From what I understand, a gut pile can be descriptive of a Great-horned Owl (GHOW) kill. With larger prey, such as rabbits, the prey is often removed of its entrails, and with rabbits, often decapitated to make it easier to transport the larger prey item. The heart is usually eaten, but the intestines/stomach/and other digestive system parts are usually removed and left behind. With the head, GHOW will often come back the next night or later the same night to retrieve the head. This is from my own personal experience of watching a GHOW owl with a dead rabbit under my birdfeeder while living in NY. After seeing it sitting in the snow with the rabbit in its talons, the next morning I went out and found the head and gut pile. The next night the GHOW came back and got the head as it was gone the following morning with no other tracks to suggest a fox or other mammal got the head. The gut pile was still there.

Jeff Kozma

Yakima

j c r underscore 5105 at charter dot net
----- Original Message -----
From: Linda Bainbridge
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2012 4:16 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Intestines


Several times over the past two years I have found rabbit intestines and sometimes the liver and stomach along with tufts of rabbit fur in the grass on our property. From what I've read neither a Great Horned Owl nor a coyote would leave the innards behind. Is that correct? If so, what animal might do this? I haven't seen any feral cats around here.

Thanks,
Linda Bainbridge
Greenbank, Whidbey Island


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