Territories for Fox?

finnbear270

Well-Known Member
What do we know about Fox, with regard to the "Home Range", for those that inhabit countryside as opposed to the town Fox?...... some informants tell us, "She/He's been here for ages", "See Him/Her, same place same sort of time of day/night, then you get "OOh, haven't seen that one before, where did you get Him?", Anyone have any real scientific stuff on this?? My own thoughts are limited to the lowland farming version of this most worthy quarry,& the wiliest we get to pursue seem to be on the higher poorer type's of ground.
 
for science get the book "running with the fox".

Has loads on territory and density. It basically comes down to food. Foxes travel very little and tolerate strangers much better if plenty of food about. Overall territory size is hugely variable
 
i shot quite a few in my time and i worked out that if you count up 10 to 100 acres you not far wrong.when i get a new permission say 120 i shoot 12 and then the problem seem to go away but i cango back next year and shoot approximaitly the same number,
 
"Wild Fox" by Roger Burrows has a lot of interesting info and a good biblography.
ISBN 0-7153-9253-0
Peter
 
What do we know about Fox, with regard to the "Home Range", for those that inhabit countryside as opposed to the town Fox?...... some informants tell us, "She/He's been here for ages", "See Him/Her, same place same sort of time of day/night, then you get "OOh, haven't seen that one before, where did you get Him?", Anyone have any real scientific stuff on this?? My own thoughts are limited to the lowland farming version of this most worthy quarry,& the wiliest we get to pursue seem to be on the higher poorer type's of ground.

Hi finnbear
I was going to offer to lend you my copy of Wild Fox by Roger Burrows but I checked on Amazon and you can get a copy delivered for less than £3 which is probably as cheap as I could post it
Geordie
 
Hi finnbear
I was going to offer to lend you my copy of Wild Fox by Roger Burrows but I checked on Amazon and you can get a copy delivered for less than £3 which is probably as cheap as I could post it
Geordie

Grateful for your offer, but was just interested in the views of those on here that chase em!:) Steve.
 
I apologise for no view Finn. I shoot moorland where 1 fox per 1000 acres can be optimistic due to pressures of keepering, a 7000 acre estate often yields less than a dozen per year. I have a 400 acre chicken farm which seems to have stabilised at 20 per year. I then have 700 acres of mixed corn and woodland and that seems good for 20 per year.

However the picture we have is skewed as by shooting we create gaps and they are then filled. Moreover the shooting pressure applied by your neighbours makes a big difference. I suspect very few of us leave foxes for long enough to understand their true home range.

What I have found is that in "good areas" a few hundred acres will be all that a fox needs and it will likely be very reluctant to move off its own ground even when you are following it.
 
Foxes seem to have changed their habits. For years we would see foxes in the same places, shoot one and another would replace it in a short time.
The last couple of years they just turn up in random places, with no pattern at all
 
We absolutely overun with them. Just cannot fathom out where they are all coming from. We had 10 off two fields and I knew there was another vixen. Next morning 2 were seen and another 2 nights ago. Its been the same on a couple of places we just seem to keep on shooting them and new ones turn up.

D
 
Back in the 70's or early 80's, there was a documentary on radio tracking on I think the Pennines. One fox was recorded in going 26 miles in a night!
It's all food, habitat, proximity to a large breeding area - towns, cities or un shot/hunted ground. Around here there are milky vixens all over the place with no territories - mind ypu I neever try and let them have to chance to establish!
 
Some very good books mentioned all a good read and cheap. Over the years ive been after Charlie there has only been one occasion where Iam positive a fox has travelled a good distance in one night, almost 4.5 miles as the crow flies. I had been waiting for a chicken killer at a new permission I had been asked to help out at as it had previously been missed with lamp and rifle the night before. After a good 4hr wait with the nv not a thing showed so we packed up as had another spot to visit where a fox had also been helping its self to poultry. After mabey 20 minutes or so a real poor vixen was dispatched with the .223 looking for away into the coop. The vixen only had one eye that would reflect and half a tail, exactly as described by the lad who missed it the previous night when he phoned me for a hand earlier in the day. Now was it the easy meal that lured her that distance or the fact she had a high velocity round whizz by her head the previous night... One things for sure though, they always seem to fill the void.
 
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