Missing dead bodies in Tenerife

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

There have been three recent episodes of dead bodies going missing in Tenerife, on the west of the island, within about 3km from where I live.

While out walking the dogs, we have come across the remains of two dead rats and a rabbit.  I thought it funny (peculiar, not ha ha) when after a day or two the rat bodies simply disappeared.  The street cleaners don't clean where they were.  Yesterday there was a dead rabbit's body on the road (Vera to the TF-82 if anyone is interested) so OH moved it off the road.  Today, the body is GONE.

Who or what is taking these dead bodies, and for what purposes?  Any ideas? 

[Janet]

Birds of prey?

Stray podencos? (Rosie brought something home like that once and buried it under a tree) ...

[Nova]

Dogs, cats, feral or otherwise? 

[Perikles]

Local restaurants?

[Nova]

Rat-au-van? 

[Michael]

I watched a sparrow hawk eating a dove at the bottom of our garden.

All he/she left was the skeleton and feathers.

Next morning even that was gone.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

That's exactly it.  No trace of the bodies at all.  I think the podenco/feral dog/cat ideas are probably the likeliest.

[Perikles]

That's exactly it.  No trace of the bodies at all.  I think the podenco/feral dog/cat ideas are probably the likeliest.

Dogs have a habit of finding something like a dead rabbit and taking it away for at least a few yards before dropping it, so in all likelihood that's the reason.

Aside: On the farm during lambing time, I always cleared away afterbirths and put them in a pile next to the path back to the farmhouse. During that period, at night the dog would drag one a few yards onto the path and leave it there. Every single night I would fall on my back after slipping on one. Did you know afterbirth is incredibly slippery?

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

No, but you have just saved us from the same fate.  What a public service!