Fox control, is it effective?

[captdavid]

10-15 years ago, a survey was done on a 10,000 acre ranch in south Texas. I read this when it was published, awhile ago. It was, essentially divided by a highway. A count was made of deer and coyotes, by Texas Parks and Wildlife. Over five years the coyotes on one side were shot when seen, but not particularly targeted. On the other side, none were shot. Deer were hunted an shot as normal. At the end of the five years, the population, of both was essentially the same.

In my 60yrs, in the 'great outdoors,' I have seen between 10-20 foxes, both red and grey, which are essentially the same. They are obviously not as common here, as in the UK. I think the coyotes keep the population down! I know it's not exactly the same. It seems that you in are covered up with foxes. I know that many are required to shoot foxes on sight, most stalkers kill foxes when the opportunity arises, and others specifically target them. It seems that most are killed on smaller parcels, often surrounded on, at least one side by places where foxes are protected. I wonder if the fox population would stay the same if they were left alone.

A little off subject but, Our foxes, or coyotes for that matter, do very little damage, over all, to agriculture. They might, even in the long run, be a positive, by keeping the rodent population down. This is purely speculation on my point. I know that you raise a tremendous amount of semi-wild pheasants. What is the main food of the foxes?

capt david

 

[Freeforester]

Check out the incidence of 'skab' in Swedish foxes, in areas when/where the population is insufficiently controlled. Also called mange here, the more severe outbreaks in Sweden resulted in massive population reductions and resultant explosion in recruitment figures for partridge and other wild ground nesting species. Knock yourself out!

Btw, why did Reynard cross the road?

 

[enfieldspares]

Like culling magpies it simply creates an opportunity for incoming vermin of the same species. But that's not immediately and IMHO at nesting time and hatching time it is worthwhile. Also around release pens shooting, trapping and snaring is worthwhile...in any case someone "out at night" keeps an eye out for "pest species" of the two legged kind and their vehicles.

 

[Crosshair243]

Interesting question. It definitely depends on the surrounding fox population. We are 3000 acres surrounded by 10,000 acres of towns, villages, common land, nature reserves and small farm shoots.
As such, if I cull foxes, they get sucked in almost as fast I shoot them. However, my pheasants are also transient and as we shoot hard, they drift out to the same locations and then back in again. So a lower local population is still beneficial.
After 8yrs of tweaking, I’ve settled on a zero tolerance rule from February until the harvest is off. This means killing vixens before they cub down then later, finding and killing whole litters and then finally killing whatever turns up in the summer from elsewhere.
Once my pheasants are roosting well, I’ll ease off and only deal with specific problematic foxes.

Other shoots where they have a buffer of other well keepered land or low fox densities, can probably get away with culling all year as and when foxes arrive.

If I had significant numbers of partridges I’d also carry on longer into the Autumn.

Fox numbers here are well up on last year incidentally. Last year was quieter than average so probably all part of the natural cycle.

 

[badbob]

There was a conservative estimate Fox population in the UK of 225,000.
After breeding this would increase to about 750,000 in the summer.
so around 500,000 "die" each year. some on the roads others shot or trapped
Traditional fox hunting with hounds only accounted for around 20,000
and is no longer legal ( thanks to the anti lobby)
Those that shoot foxes often account for dozens or hundreds in a year.
and are very effective in those areas where foxes are controlled
However, there is a massive reservoir of foxes in urban areas and also rural areas where they are not controlled
In urban areas their diet is mainly discarded take aways, pizzas, pies and chips, with the occasional cat or rat.
In the rural areas ground nesting birds do not stand much chance of success with foxes, badgers,corvids,
weasels stoats, tame and feral cats. Foxes do also eat small mammals and rabbits, and new born roedeer and lambs?
We dont have coyotes or wolves so they have no real predators except for the motor car.

 

[ashray]

good evening,for many years i shot foxes on site ,2.5k acres average over the years was 35 september last year shoot closed boss says kill all deer and rabbits BUT leave the foxes alone.since january this year i see an average of five foxes a night when after the rabbits ,maybe the same ones maybe different ones but the numbers are up as are the badgers this year.so from my point of view if the fox is not controlled their numbers increase.

 

[Marcher]

" Controlling " a wild population ? I thought that the approved method was to kill the old and infirm and surplus youngsters, and leave the "territorial" middle aged ones to patrol their territories . Hounds were quite good at this, hence relatively small numbers were killed. Since Hunting has been "stopped", riflemen are killing vast numbers of foxes, and vast numbers remain.

 

[captdavid]

What do they all eat? The survey said that, on the 'not shot' side, population was controlled naturally by food supply. When it got smaller, so did litter size. O the 'shot' side, the litters were larger. capt david

 

[landkeeper]

Killing any resident DOMINANT adult predator opens up its now vacant territory to others ,so by killing a pair or one of a pair there maybe several newcomers trying then to establish in that vacancy .
This is probably less of a probability in peak breeding season .But you can end up with multiples where there was an established pair .
With me its simple it cant predate if its dead.!
Capt they eat just about anything they find , and foxes have a kill instinct so if they come across a mouse ,rat, pheasant ,whatever they will kill it and a lot of the time bury it .Nature gives them that edge they dont have to take that micro second to think 'am i hungry' they grab kill then decide

 

[User00025]

The last animals left on earth will be the Fox and the Rat. The Question is "Who will eat Who?"

 

[Overlay]

The last animals left on earth will be the Fox and the Rat. The Question is "Who will eat Who?"

The cockroach eventually

 

[Pedro]

Foxes are part of our fauna here and as animals, you can only admire the way they have thrived, not only recently but over the centuries when a great deal of other species have become extinct in Britain. Indeed, as we all know, they continue to conquer new environments, now living cheek by jowl with humans in towns and cities. However, they are opportunistic killers of pretty much anything they can get hold of, which creates problems where human endeavours include stock that the fox will see as prey. Which includes chicken farms, game bird hatcheries, game shoots and sheep to an extent amongst others. So in these areas, they tend to get culled. Which is fine. As humans, we have now pretty much created the natural environment and it's up to us to maintain it. It is true that if the area is a viable one for supporting foxes, when you rid the area of them it'll only be a matter of time before they're back. But keeping the population down allows these ventures to do better.

Many people advocate not shooting foxes if they are really not creating a problem. Indeed, they will assist in controlling the likes of rabbits. A resident fox taking one or two pheasants a week on a shooting estate that release birds by the thousand is no significant problem and there does seem to be a case to be made for leaving that fox in case it's place is taken by others of a more predatory nature.

There are also those that shoot foxes for no other reason but sport.

 

[ileso]

Capt they eat just about anything they find , and foxes have a kill instinct so if they come across a mouse ,rat, pheasant ,whatever they will kill it and a lot of the time bury it .Nature gives them that edge they dont have to take that micro second to think 'am i hungry' they grab kill then decide

also, fruits, grapes, chestnuts, acorns, berries, insects... like you say, they eat everything they come across.

 

[captdavid]

The last animals left on earth will be the Fox and the Rat.

Until the coyote eats them all! capt david

 

[AN DU RU FOX]

nope,they are now the only animal found on every continent on earth.even competing with arctic foxes as well.

 

[riflerob]

If the real question is "Is there any point in shooting the foxes, because in the long term their population will be unchanged ?"

Then the answer from my local farmers, losing quite a few lambs this last fortnight, is a resounding 'Yes'.
The population may well recover in time. But a present, the earths that were taking lambs have been cleaned out, and 18 foxes within 3 miles of where I sit have been shot.

And that means those lambs aren't being taken last night, tonight, etc.

 

[20-250]

" Controlling " a wild population ? I thought that the approved method was to kill the old and infirm and surplus youngsters, and leave the "territorial" middle aged ones to patrol their territories . Hounds were quite good at this, hence relatively small numbers were killed. Since Hunting has been "stopped", riflemen are killing vast numbers of foxes, and vast numbers remain.

Surely you don’t believe that riflemen were not killing vast numbers of foxes before the hunting ban?

 

[Orion]

Surely you don’t believe that riflemen were not killing vast numbers of foxes before the hunting ban?

No, if you remember they were only ‘wounding’ them according to some misguided hunting supporters.

 

[20-250]

No, if you remember they were only ‘wounding’ them according to some misguided hunting supporters.

Indeed I do. Having marched to support someone else’s sport, I was less than impressed by their bizarre self-serving claims.

 

[Cyres]

In a couple of locations we are very hard on the foxs. Since we have been doing this the hare population has grown from rarely seen to common. Roe kid survival has gone up but that is also dependent on when 1st cut silage occurs. Hen loss to foxs has all but been eliminated. We do have some wild pheasants but until any effective badger control is in place not much hope for other ground dwellers. I/we shoot 150+ foxs a year off a relatively small acreage, and we will always have an ceaseless influx from the surrounding urban and fragment countryside.
D