The Case of the Purloined Squirrel Corpse

I know, but a cat can easily drag off a squirrel and I think that it's the most likely culprit in a suburban setting.

Sure, my cats have brought us headless squirrels on many occasions.

But would a cat, as Soz says, pick up and eat a dead squirrel? Hmmm...

Now, a Dog, sure. Though a dog might wait a bit and roll in the horrid dead smell first, just for, you know, Fun.

Anyone else mentioned Vultures? Don't know how many live Up North, but in downtown Tampa they roost on the tops of the tallest buildings. They'd have no problem picking up a squirrel.

Or a Raven? You have them?

There have been famous cases of feline necrophagy, such as that of cats that begin to eat their dead owners, so I suspect that they aren't above scavenging carrion in all cases. Don't know who's the culprit here though.

Supposedly strict vegitarians like prairie dogs have been observed eating dead bodies of animals. I don't know if it ever got written up in the literature.

Oh, damn! TMI! TMI!

A possible explanation

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112894124

I once had a cat that began leaving a daily dead squirrel on the doorstep. I finally stopped it by giving him to somebody that could keep him without endangering more squirrels.

Only sensible thing to do.

Since nature has not endowed them with the means to use a telephone to call for help, nor open cupboards and cans.

Right, that's the thing -- cats eat dead humans 'cause they're stuck with them and have no other food source. The cats around here are all fed (there are bowls of food outside for strays) and there are plenty of live food sources (mourning doves, especially -- a neighbor has a ground bird feeder that another neighbor calls a "cat feeder"). I'm not sure that, given all of these appealing food sources, a dead squirrel would rank high enough to go to the trouble of wrangling it. If it were the only food source in a locked enclosure, that'd be something else...

Rockhead's post made a big impression on me because the UN-deadness of the eyes was something that I took away from the encounter. They seemed too shiny, too alive. I thought the bugs were a dealbreaker there (live eyes don't have bugs swarming on them) but evidently not.

That's cool!