Fox predation on fawns & lambs

Yokel Matt

Well-Known Member
Not sure what its like in other parts of the country but areas traditionally holding healthy rabbit populations seem all but deserted in the last year. VHD and heavy rain probably more to blame than the annual bout of mixi. Anyone else have a lingering concern for this knocking onto increased predation of roe / munty kids and lambs this coming year?:-|
 
Lambing has already started on one of my permissions.Wife took a phonecall while i was at work so i went out that night.
Shot a large vixen within ten minutes of getting there.Heading for the flock having slipped over the boundary.Not many rabbits around at all and i have seen them with signs of VHD.Blood around the eyes, lethargic,etc.
Foxes are hitting the poultry pretty hard here too.
 
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Myxi taken it's toll here too, and I've just had a yearling ewe lamb pulled about by foxes - she'd got caught in some brambles, and is now minus her tail and a large part of her lower lip. That's on a piece of ground which had a high rabbit population up until the autumn.
 
dont want to sound condesending but if your " permissions " , hate that word, has sheep on it and early lambs you should be hitting them hard 24/7.

get the carcass of a dead lamb pin it out in a field, 100 yards from cover, with 50Lb fishing line and stakes.
then shoot the buggers as they come in for tea.

p,
 
with all the rain we have had foxes will be in places that they normally woundn't be there is only so much high ground and we have four out of the next five days forecast for rain
 
dont want to sound condesending but if your " permissions " , hate that word, has sheep on it and early lambs you should be hitting them hard 24/7.

get the carcass of a dead lamb pin it out in a field, 100 yards from cover, with 50Lb fishing line and stakes.
then shoot the buggers as they come in for tea.

p,
Thats the point.I dont normally see much in the way of fox activity on this land.Last one i saw and shot on there was a couple of months ago.Lambing is earlier than usual too.
 
On some of my land, one large farm in particular, I'm not seeing many rabbits at all, where I used to take quite a few...BUT, on a walk round the same farm yesterday, I saw lots of fox dirt...never seen so much..all of it on the higher points on the farm...it looks to me as if they are "scanning" the ground.....so, out early tomorrow morning, and tomorrow evening to see whats what... No lambing as yet tho..I normally get told by the farmer a few weeks before it starts..:)
 
I do alot of rabbiting , the rabbits are right down across the area they have had a terrible year. I am ferreting quite a few with mixi and others in poor condition full of worms. Both these conditions are caused by having to spend so much time underground and not out and about. It's quite a while before the fawns start apearing , hopefully we'll have a better spring with plenty of wildlife successfully breeding to take the pressure off the deer.
 
Last year there was a lot of myxi on my ground but the rabbit population is doing ok again now....lots of rabbits above ground during daytime these last couple of weeks. Endless supply of foxes all over.
 
Well you know only too well the local fox population round here are definitely fond of the odd Roe kid............


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Martin
 
Same in Warwickshire. Rabbit all but disappeared Started the new year off well with a nice vixen. Came straight into the barking call from about 400yds. Fell over at 80 to the 22-250. I'll be out again tomorrow.
 
I have found the rabbit population drop constantly for the last 4 years now , my farm used to have a really good stock of rabbits that we ferreted but now I leave them as there are so few. Foxes we get in waves, you don't see any for a while then have a bumper night , maybe roaming from other areas. I hope its down to good control ha ha.
 
I put two sacks of bait out yesterday afternoon on a farm where they've just started lambing. Hopefully, by the time the youngsters are put out in the fields I'll have dealt with any remaining foxes.
 
I have found the rabbit population drop constantly for the last 4 years now , my farm used to have a really good stock of rabbits that we ferreted but now I leave them as there are so few. Foxes we get in waves, you don't see any for a while then have a bumper night , maybe roaming from other areas. I hope its down to good control ha ha.

this is not a dig, but I find your profile picture disturbing as it looks like you've been disfiguring a recently shot buck to make it look funny. like I said, not a dig, just looks distasteful, esp. to the 'antis' should they come here to 'visit' for propaganda material to use.
 
What is a rabbit!!!!!!

Haven't seen one for months, saying that I did see one in Shropshire at the weekend.

Most of my ground is awash, no issues with black and whites as the setts are full to the brim on one farm. Rabbits gone, saw 7 foxes on Weds eve, shot 2x2 so a start.

Re Roe kids/fawns, in areas with high populations of foxes could be up to 70% mortality (Sweddish studies).

I expect the owls are going to be hit as alot of the marshy rough grass has now been underwater for months so not much habitat for small mammals.

D
 
We've had a massive decline in rabbits around here (N Wales) over the past few years. Largely seems to correlate to the increase in buzzards and corvids...
 
Lambing has already started on one of my permissions.Wife took a phonecall while i was at work so i went out that night.
Shot a large vixen within ten minutes of getting there.Heading for the flock having slipped over the boundary.Not many rabbits around at all and i have seen them with signs of VHD.Blood around the eyes, lethargic,etc.
Foxes are hitting the poultry pretty hard here too.
Please excuse my ignorance !! but what is VHD ??
 
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