A farm in Marlborough wants to raise awareness about bobcats after one killed dozens of ducks inside a coop Monday.
It was supposed to be a regular morning the day after Christmas at The Farm at Carter Hill in Marlborough.
But Mitch Lichatz, the owner’s husband, noticed something was off as he approached the coop housing their ducks.
“We didn’t hear anything. It was like eerie because even the goats and the sheep weren’t doing anything. I got over here and usually the ducks are out around in the pool, and there was no sound,” he said.
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He opened the door and was shocked to see a bobcat inside the coop that had killed all the ducks inside. The bobcat was captured on video that was posted on Facebook.
“It was mind-boggling on how it would just kill them and stack them up, probably to bring them back,” Lichatz said.
He said the bobcat got in through a window by the door, jamming its way in.
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“The bobcat went in. This was off outside and it pushed it in, got in through here, and then when it came down, it went back,” he said.
This trapped the bobcat inside, where it then killed the ducks.
Lichatz said they eventually captured it with help from a friend who is a licensed trapper and the animal was relocated.
The loss of the ducks was hard to take.
“They’re our pets, they’re our companions. They’re what people come down and see us,” Lichatz said.
A few days earlier, a bobcat attacked a man in Columbia after hiding under his truck. The man was able to kick it away.
State wildlife officials said it’s rare for a bobcat to attack people as they will run away. When a bobcat does attack it is usually rabid.
However, bobcats preying on farm animals like chickens or ducks isn’t uncommon.
“Bobcats do go after poultry and stuff like that, so it’s not surprising that that could occur,” Howard Kilpatrick, a DEEP wildlife biologist, said.
Lichatz said the window is being reinforced and has barriers at the farm to discourage bobcats from hunting, but acknowledges it is an apex predator.
“No matter what you do. You bury your fence two feet underground or a foot underground. You put chicken wire, you put gratings, you put fence. They’re going to find it. If they want it, they’re going to get it,” Lichatz said.
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