Bobtail coons seem to be fairly common. My question is do they lose their tail in some way or are they born that way?

The most common school of thought, and what I believe is most common, is they are bitten/damaged/torn off or eventually fall off from rival males pulling them off breeding females. This time of year, with breeding in full swing you'll see a lot of them damaged or freshly docced. It's also how then boars get that grissley scarred up neck on the upper back that is so fun to scrape. I suppose a few are born that way as well, but I don't recall ever seeing a bobtailed sow coon, mostly all big boars.

Seems like it’s alway the big old boars for sure.

Boars usually not furred great and often times rubbed.

A high percentage of our big boars are bobbed, but like ADC said, I don't think I've ever seen a sow with a short tail. Some of the old timers said that they froze off in bad winters, but I never did quite believe it. I would tend to agree that it is related to breeding and fighting.

I had a big old boar on my cat line that was a nemesis that tailless butt on camera was a give away that it was him.

yup always big old boars sometimes a female or younger coon definitely from fighting during breeding season but probably fighting with coyotes too as the tail is a great place to grab as they run away

Every day you spend on earth is another day to get hurt. Ever see an old man’s hands?

Several times I've caught big ole boar coon that had enough damage on it's tail that it would loose it soon. IMO

when my daughter was 9 her first catch was a big old boar coon, without a tail, she will never forget and I won't either, she couldn't tell what it was because it did have a tail at all!!!

I guess that this would be just as good a time as any to ask who was it who got their "tail" caught in a 330 some years back. I don't recall whether he lost it or not.

Marty Harmon, funniest story ever posted on Trapperman.

I thi k they either freeze off ir the mamas chew em off like foxes will sometimes.

Th first coon i caught on my own didt have a tail at all. No bobtail just flat not there

They get injured from fighting and infection and they probably fall off do to this . I catch alot of bobs and usually old boars

This ol teddy bear had one….if you can possibly imagine

I have seen very few young coons with short or no tails. Trapping in Iowa for 40+ years, I feel pretty good about the explanation I already gave. We have a lot of coons.

I guess that makes me an old timer because I did believe that. It kind of made sense up here because it gets darn cold during breeding season in February when these big boys are out roaming around looking for girls. But hearing that it's common in southern states makes me think maybe not.

Some bobtails are the result of the mother clipping them off when they are born as she is in the act of cutting the umbilical cord and eating the placenta. Often this is done to the whole litter and is found in many small mammals, mink ( we had a 20 or so litters have this yearly when we raised mink), but also fox, skunk, coons, mice, rats, dogs and coyotes. Sometimes the mother also nips off one or both back feet. In this case the back legs and the tail are all the same length. We always pelted a mother mink that did this as they would do it every year.
When I first started doing ADC work I had a raccoon job in Hackettstown (33 miles from my house in a straight line). Caught a mother and 4 - 1/2 grown pups the first night. All pups were stubtails. It was late August and I figured I will let them out by my house and re-catch them in a few months for the pelts. 26 hours later the lady from Hackettstown was on the phone that the coons were back and tryin to get into the vent on her house. She said they are the same ones cause they have short tails. She wanted them dead, so I shot all 5 off the roof. Never released another coon.

Agree. I’ve probably caught a hundred bob tail coon in my life and just about everyone was an adult male.

The only reason I didn't quite believe it was that the sows didn't seem to ever be bobbed.