We are overloaded with eagles here and I am sure they will take their toll on the woodchucks like they do on everything else.
That’s a good thought too… I still think it has something to do with the lack of cows around. We pastured our cows in the hay fields after we took the hay off and woodchucks would be out when the cows were around. I imagine the cows kept the coyotes and birds of prey away. So it could be they just lost their protection. Maybe we could form a committee and get a 10 million (or billion, what does the government care because it’s not their money) dollar grant to study it…
About 12 years ago I shot a small woodchuck that came out of the woods into our back yard. I grabbed him and threw him in the “yard” about 100 yards in front of our house. It was only a couple of hours later 4 turnkey buzzards were on him, which surprised me because he wasn’t ripe yet, but anyways… All of a sudden they all took off and much much larger bird landed on the chuck and carried it off. Took me a bit to realize it was a young bald eagle that didn’t have a white head yet. It was really amazing to see the buzzards scatter so quickly because they won’t move that fast with a truck coming at them.
