Q`s on UK foxes

John Gryphon

Well-Known Member
Australia has the Euro red fox as a major threat to native fauna and farm animals and are the lowest on the ladder,even the Greens dont mind them being killed here and when skin prices were good every man and his dog went after them.

With 20,000 (yep thousand ) skins going through 'Australian Estates' auction house fortnightly at the height of the skin prices it became evident that geographical location resulted in the common old red fox colour being changed.IE Western New South Wales foxesoften ran to a lighter sandy coloured fur, yet in the green valley`s in Victoria they were the trad deep red with a 3 inch magnum white tip on their brush though in saying that 20 kilometres away the foxes were a different shade again.
In our local farms we had the Mt William type, a deep red and Springfield foxes lighter in body weight and the sandy lighter red and they brought less dough too.

Q`s Do the UK foxes run to different colours in different areas?
 
Shot many different color variations in the same areas from light sandy to dark red and Silver/Grey even had then with a spotted fleck in there coat
One thing that does vary can be there size in relation to there habitat/area, we tend to get a small type fox on the fells and a larger animal on the lower country
Many years ago we had a Larger Native Gray fox in Lakeland and other parts of the UK often referred to as the Greyhound fox or Lakeland Grey type, it is thought this native fox disappeared around the 1900s, The last recorded one caught by the Ullswater foxhounds in 1934.
Believed to have bred with the red fox maybe this is how we get the odd color trait who knows!!!
 
I worked in cumbrria for 10 years and the foxes i killed were no different from the foxes i get down here , when i first moved down i had a run of them with big white spots on them and another litter with white "socks" on their front legs
 
I must add that while I have never personally seen a white fox in the wild I have seen two mounted fully white specimens that had been shot in Victoria.
 
Not all UK foxes have the traditional white tip to their tails although most seem to. I have also heard some talk of melanistic foxes in some places although I've never seen one. As mentioned by Big Stu, the biggest variation is with size as we have mountainous areas in the UK which seem to produce a lighter animal whereas those from the more fertile lowland areas and with the better feeding can be considerably bigger.

The "Greens" and tree huggers very much mind them being shot/controlled and in the cities many people actually feed and encourage them. I saw a very recent article that suggested that about 20% of the UK's foxes now live in urban areas and cities like Bristol, Birmingham, London and Glasgow have large populations numbering tens of thousands.
 
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I called a fox to the car after a night out with the wife last week.....as you do, and all the usually white parts were black and it had a black patch on its side!
 
I remember my father saying the first fox he trapped as a boy [1930s], was a type called the GlenStrathfarrer fox .[An area in the highlands].It was quite common at that time.It was completely red with no black socks or ears .Have heard other old stalkers talk of the same fox type. I shoot foxes in the same area now and they are all standard foxes with small variations in colour but unfortunately no "Strathfarrer foxes"!
 
johngryphon,I can remember back in the early 80's i think, the keepers shot two pure white foxes at Leeds castle in kent, the place seemed to breed "albino's" as there was also white squirrels, deer and badgers, at the moment i have a white badger on a bit of my ground in the southeast of england.
White pheasants are quite common over here.

Tikkat3
 
The old boys round here used to call the ones without white tags on their tails welsh foxes , we do have one valley that has alot of ginger badgers in it
 
ive never notice much of a different in any of the fox ive trapped/shot mybe the foxes off the fell are a little leaner (south cumbria)
 
johngryphon,I can remember back in the early 80's i think, the keepers shot two pure white foxes at Leeds castle in kent, the place seemed to breed "albino's" as there was also white squirrels, deer and badgers, at the moment i have a white badger on a bit of my ground in the southeast of england.
White pheasants are quite common over here.

Tikkat3

Now that is very interesting TT3,obviously they are unrelated so i wonder what the go is with all the white models..is it the minerals or the water.. well thats a no way job so what is the bluudy answer?
 
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