Foxes?

captdavid

Well-Known Member
We have the red fox here in Texas. In my entire hunting lifetime, I'm 63 so lets call it 50yrs, I have seen one single red fox, two yearlings and a female with three cubs. We also have a smaller grey fox, of which I've seen ten or so while hunting. They, along with our racoon, are fairly common while calling at night. We also have the coyote, which are fairly common. I've shot 10-15 and probably seen 2-3 times that many, but have not had a shot at or chosen not to shoot for fear of scaring away game.

I'm sorry if that was too much info!:rolleyes:

My question is: do you all regularly see foxes? I wonder why you have so many more than we do.? Obviously you have more, I wonder why? Is it your top predator? Do you have grey or any other foxes? (I know that you have reports of 'black cats,' but let's not go there!) capt david
 
Captdavid, the best year I had I shot 50 foxes, (10 in one night) I was hunting about about three nights per month. We saw foxes every night. I think that this is average for most game keepers in the UK if they have 1,500 acres or more.
 
Captdavid, Foxes are top preditor here in the countryside and are also scavangers and as such they thrive in towns also living in gardens and eating discarded burgers/raiding bins etc.
Some people even feed them becouse they say they look cute.
If you keep hens or have a game shoot they are no1 problem as they go into killing frenzy and will kill many birds untill they tire.
The keeper where I go stalking lost over 100 birds in one night to foxes in one pen:!:
They also will kill young deer/lambs etc if they get the chance.
Most stalkers that go whare there is a game shoot are told to shoot foxes first then Deer.
The only other animal that kills more birds in the UK is the domestic Cat
 
we have more as it is our top predator, alot of our ground is not shot over, and they are supported by the town populations and the increased food available.

50 I think is probably low for an average on 1500 acres.....well especially in the south, we shoot 4x that.
 
Captdavid

The density of the hunting may also be a factor, you probably have 3-4 times more hunters in Texas alone than we have in the whole of the UK due to our strict Licensing policies over here. (love em or hate em we are stuck with em here)!

I have a Sister that lives in Mass & my nephew is due to come her to University in London for a few years & he just cant wait to get over here as we benefit from less restrictions in terms of numbers of animals we can take within season as long as you have the ground to hold the numbers & have a sustainable culling policy, (sorry talking deer here not foxes).

I know the deer density is very high in the states, but with so many hunters you are very restricted on how many you can hunt each season are you not?

Am I also right in that you are only allowed to hunt for own consumption & not for sale?

Regs Lee
 
Lee, not to hijack my own thread,;) I'll open a new thread on deer seasons and limits. I suppose our top predator is the mountain lion, or possibly the wolf where present, but from a practical point its the coyote. I know they will kill deer. I even saw 3 after a doe once. The strange part was is that there was a fawn with her, but they were chasing her. Maybe she was sick. I have read that coyotes will eat foxes. I hate to admidt this, but a lot of my ideas about the British:british: countryside comes from watching CI Barnaby, Doc Martin and the Mc Donalds in Glen Bogle.:oops: It appears to me that, in the country anyway, there are a lot of small woods(copese?), gardens or fencelines that might act as habitat for foxes. For that matter I know that you have lots of rabbits/hares and I have seen large kills. I can't imagine ever killing more than 5 rabbits in a day of hunting. They are fox food. capt david

Sorry I forgot to mention Golly and Duncan! hehe
 
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Hi Captdavid
In the English midlands I used to shoot 100-150 a year and had two friends who both probably shot over 100+ per year each all within all within 15-20 minutes of my house.
However we had a bad outbreak of mange about 8-10 years ago that dramaticly reduced the population in our area although they seem to be coming back at the moment.

Heres an old photo of a good night in July

Wayne


DSC00317.jpg
 
I have talked to five of my hunting buddies after starting this thread. The one with the most experience, he's 43 and done most of his hunting in Iowa, has seen two. Another 40something, who's been hunting for most of his life, has never seen one. The others, who I have introdoced to hunting in the last 10yrs or so, also have never seen one. We obviously don't have the population that you do. capt david
 
Plenty of foxes here. They even attack our children in the cities. In the rural country w can shoot several a night. Stopped counting how many I've seen and shot.
 
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