Do foxes take lambs?

[Smelly Yeti]

Have watched them actively trying to take lambs/split lambs away from ewes through the thermal whilst out on our permissions. Also aren’t shy about getting right in amongst the sheep & definitely intelligent as will often specifically target multiples - easier to split a triplet away plus easier kill as normally smaller. Biggest problem we find is that it can be difficult finding the safe shot to actually take them without risking harm to the flock! As this is an open forum I won’t comment on any other prolific predators!!

 

[Crowstalker]

Very interesting folks I'm just about to take the 222 out now and check the sheep fields!

 

[bogtrotter]

Yes they certainly do , but a fox is an opportunist especially when rearing a family of cubs and new born lambs are easy pickings.
You may suffer less losses where there is another easy come by food source rabbits for example but in say a hill
environment they cause havoc among lambs.
I remember once finding seventeen lambs at a den can't say for sure the fox killed everyone of them some may have been already dead but not all.

 

[glasshalffull]

Once had to shoot a lamp shy Renard that had gotten wise to the effective distance of a farmer's s/gun. He was accounted for in the middle of a lambing paddock whilst lying waiting right behind a ewe in the middle of birthing.. This fox was obviously an old hand and had learned wicked ways. But I only shoot problem foxes these days and am appalled by the wanten slaughter of some so called sportsmen posting pics of a mountain of fox taken out in a single night. Some are downright disrespectful of this intelligent creature. Yes I'm getting softer with age

 

[shearstu]

I lamb my own sheep out side and shoot my own
I try to and stay away until I get a prob
Once u start u can’t stop
Most foxes just want a easy meal afterbirth etc
But some kill for fun

 

[bumpy22]

I have shot foxes with many different things in there mouth piglets pheasants rats rabbits eggs lambs fish etc. There's no doubt they are the greatest opportunist in nature. They will always take what's easiest to them. A bit like massacring a hen house. Or in their eyes taking the opportunity in front of them. It is exactly the same with lambs. When there is a sick lamb or a ewe with twins the fox will definitely take the opportunity.
Been called out last night to a lambing field to deal with fox taking lambs. But the amount of badgers I saw I suspect it may not of been a fox. But that's a whole new debate lol

 

[Redders]

I've had one in my lambing shed needless to say it didnt leave the shed alive

 

[Redders]

I have shot foxes with many different things in there mouth piglets pheasants rats rabbits eggs lambs fish etc. There's no doubt they are the greatest opportunist in nature. They will always take what's easiest to them. A bit like massacring a hen house. Or in their eyes taking the opportunity in front of them. It is exactly the same with lambs. When there is a sick lamb or a ewe with twins the fox will definitely take the opportunity.
Been called out last night to a lambing field to deal with fox taking lambs. But the amount of badgers I saw I suspect it may not of been a fox. But that's a whole new debate lol

Badgers eat from the back end foxes from the front end first

 

[Pedro]

Foxes most certainly take lambs, especially when very small (the lambs that is). Although they might not in areas where there's a good supply of other food on account of if the mother sees what the fox is up to, then it'll chase it and if the fox is caught unawares, a hefty butt from an adult sheep will not be recommended.

 

[rms364]

I’ve lost lambs to foxes and witnessed it through my thermal spotter. Wish I pressed record but I know exactly what I saw. But there are many reasons why lambs don’t make it to market. Predation from foxes are just a small part usually but a preventative one all the same...

 

[Brittany boy]

I’ve watched a badger snuffling in about the field of ewes and lambs, when an inquisitive lamb smelled the badger the badger bit the muzzle of the lamb and crushed it, the lamb didn't die straight away and was still alive the following day but unable to suckle and was culled by the farmer. There were a few others injured the same way that year. The foxes will pick up the injured and get the blame of those as well.

 

[Crowstalker]

Sounds a mixture between fox and badger. Badgers would be a grumpy old thing.

 

[mudman]

Top of my street there is a paddock with 92 ewes currently lambing, they lost seven last night just to a moderate frost.

 

[hedge hunter]

The crows do more damage round my area. Inflict terrible wounds on the new borns

 

[Brittany boy]

What breed of sheep , seems a bit extreme to loss so many , possibly bad husbandry we have had snow and hailstones the past few days without losses .

 

[mudman]

What breed of sheep , seems a bit extreme to loss so many , possibly bad husbandry we have had snow and hailstones the past few days without losses .

To be honest I don’t know, white woolly ones! Lowland East Yorkshire, the lad who lives in a house next to the field has taken to keeping an eye on them, lambing them etc even though they are not his. They belong to one of those types who rent grazing all over and have too much stock on too many scattered locations so the animals do not get the husbandry required at this time, owner only checks on them once a day.

 

[Sonicdmb73]

I've heard many people say they do but as one who has grown up around sheep farms I've never heard any local farmer complaining that they have lost lambs to fox's. Yes plenty of hens taken but has anyone here actually had experience of this happening or witnessed this themselves?

I have seen them taken. I have shot foxes actively trying to separate one of twins.
I have found old foxes with bad teeth tend to be quite prevalent on the lambing fields.
Now I don’t recall the exact details but I was told about when scanning first became quite common on farms. The number of sheep scanned carrying twins. Compared to those with twins at foot. Showed that a surprising number of lambs were going. That would otherwise be put down as a ewe just having a small single.
Just because you haven’t seen it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

 

[Cut+Squirt]

I was chatting to a shepherdess no more than three hours ago who lost a new born lamb to a fox this morning.

She was of the opinion that once the lambs are up and mobile and after a few hours they are much less vulnerable to foxes.

They will almost certainly take a lamb though if the opportunity presents itself.

 

[Malxwal]

My sheep farmer pal is of a similar opinion. He is very good to his animals, and reckons by the time his lambs are out on the grass, a fox would only get one gone sick. Hence he isn't too bothered about the existence of foxes.

 

[Heym SR20]

A lot depends on the system being used. Most losses of young lambs are through lack of food. They are either rejected by ewe, or get lost and separated. Most young lambs that die don’t have milk in their stomachs. When I used to lamb a flock in Oxfordshire we never worried about foxes. We lambed outdoors starting 1st April. Any new lambs we just immediately fed with cholostrum so we knew they had a full belly. And the ewes were texel crosses and good mothers.

Foxes will take the sick, weak, wet and cold lambs.

Both farms I stalk on have sheep on them. There are foxes about. I do shoot them, but the farmers don’t worry about the foxes as they make sure they have strong lambs. One lambs indoors and only puts them out once lambs are strong. The other outdoors and at lambing time one of them is out very regularly.