Will the foxes run out?

[Ideation 8,216]

Alright, i'll be brief, and firstly state that this isnt an opinion, it's a question or series of questions . . . .

 

Since the hunting ban, a lot more people are killing foxes, especially with rifles at night. Although this is a very effective form of pest control, would members consider it sport also? Do a lot of people shoot foxes on the lamp in areas where it serves no pest control purpose? By this i mean . . . . .an animal only becomes a pest when it is causing negative impact, so a fox that is only living and hunting on arable land is not a pest, but in fact an ally to the farmer, as it removes other crop eating pests?

 

Due to the nature of the activity. . . .. . . i.e with the right equipment its a piece of piss to pull in big bags of multiple foxes each night......and there is NO sense of survival of the fittest. . . . . .and a huge number of cubs are being shot before breeding age. . . . .... when it is now being practiced as a massively growing sport. . . . . are we going to run out of rural foxes?

 

I think it is also an issue that some/many folk no longer have a relationship with the land they hunt that is such that they accuratly know the number of game held on that land.

 

 

Thoughts?

[JoeD 24]

Yes if it carries on, thats my oppinion.

Like in any situation if you kill too many of 1 thing it will mess up the food chain and like you say will kill off the foxes.

 

Joe

[irishnut 297]

not a chance of running out, far less people hunt or shoot now, compared with 50 or 60 year ago, back then everyone in country had hens and sheep to look after for food, snaring was big then

[Ideation 8,216]

not a chance of running out, far less people hunt or shoot now, compared with 50 or 60 year ago, back then everyone in country had hens and sheep to look after for food, snaring was big then

 

Is that statistically supported or just a guess? I'm not sure more people hunted 50/60 years ago (firstly there was a war on . . . .. ) and those that did probably hunted more for true pest control, or to feed themselves. . .and the quarry reflected this . . . . i think that fox control is higher than it has ever been and now a lot more people hunt them with success for sport and go activly looking for them rather than defending their interests?

[Guest fence_hopper]

99% of the time its not a problem fox but a trigger happy person wanting numbers to brag to there mates. you shoot 10 out of 10 fox's how many do you catch out of 10 with a dog no where near that.

 

thanks you anty c**ts real animal lovers that you are the only one who has suffered with the ban is the poor fox imo.

[Ideation 8,216]

99% of the time its not a problem fox but a trigger happy person wanting numbers to brag to there mates. you shoot 10 out of 10 fox's how many do you catch out of 10 with a dog no where near that.

 

thanks you anty c**ts real animal lovers that you are the only one who has suffered with the ban is the poor fox imo.

 

 

What got me thinking was listening to some bloke who had shot something like 7. . . . . half of them cubs. . . . . .. just after the corn was cut. By his own admission where he was shooting was crop land for miles and miles in all directions . . . . . . and he was calling it pest control???

[Guest fence_hopper]

yes mate same here. i used to go down this road throu the season a few times garentead to see atleas 8 or nine fox's nothing there last season but did see another lamp so checked it out was lads with rifles the b@sterds have no limits trigger happy lazy fools but it aint there fault they never banne hunting with dogs.

[Malt 379]

It's an interesting one..

 

No facts to back it up, but I reckon the population could sustain itself no matter what man does to it at the current rate. More foxes killed = more opportunity for younger foxes to thrive. Younger foxes from areas not so heavily hunted could move in & a higher % of litters could survive through to adulthood due to there being less competition. There's too many factors to take into account with regards to them being completely wiped out. Different land is hunted to different extremes and foxes do not respect boundaries.

 

Since the ban there I feel there is a higher number of foxes being shot, but the numbers stay the same. That's the case in my area anyway.

 

In any case, the number of annually road killed foxes vastly outweigh the numbers of foxes shot pre ban or otherwise. They're still here..

[fireman 10,996]

Yes there numbers will drop just as they have done round my village,a walk out a month ago saw at least 12 foxes,last nights walk none were to be seen and i know for a fact the rifle boys have been knocking them off even though they have denied it to me(i helped them get some decent rabbit shooting as there own ground was rubbish).So if your reading this give it a rest or your off for good as your taking the p*ss and you don't even walk the ground just drive and shoot and that AIN'T NO WAY FOR ANY COUNTRYMAN TO ACT! :sick: .

[Ideation 8,216]

It's an interesting one..

 

No facts to back it up, but I reckon the population could sustain itself no matter what man does to it at the current rate. More foxes killed = more opportunity for younger foxes to thrive. Younger foxes from areas not so heavily hunted could move in & a higher % of litters could survive through to adulthood due to there being less competition. There's too many factors to take into account with regards to them being completely wiped out. Different land is hunted to different extremes and foxes do not respect boundaries.

 

Since the ban there I feel there is a higher number of foxes being shot, but the numbers stay the same. That's the case in my area anyway.

 

In any case, the number of annually road killed foxes vastly outweigh the numbers of foxes shot pre ban or otherwise. They're still here..

 

Very good point Malt. . .. .. and i'm not talking about a nationwide loss, but just large regional areas. Although you say more foxes killed, more chance for the young to survive, but its the young an inexperianced that often take the brunt of the shooting in the first few months of their lives. Very few areas are not heavily hunted now, even if permission is not given, folk shoot from the road or just walk on illegally. It is a very efficient and quick method and an area can be cleared VERY quickly. I know the nature abhors a vacum idea but it takes TIME for a vacum to fill, especially with territorial animals that breed mostly once a year.

 

Your right annual road kills are the biggest killer, but add to that a huge increase in shooting, a huge increase in effective hunting with dogs (due to the ban ironicly) and a drop in the folk who have a vested interest in maintaining some fox numbers (i.e the hunts) and you can see where it might go.

 

We used to see plenty of fox in the daytime around hear (over an area of 1000's of acres) and were tripping over them at night. Now we are lucky to see one or two in the day over a year and only see a fair few at night [bANNED TEXT] the first breed and within a month or so they are all gone. We also found shot foxes all over the place where folk have trespassed onto the land or just shot them from the road and left them.

[Guest fence_hopper]

another thing is since the gready b@sterds put so much tax about its people are looking for a cheaper haobby to do on weekends so hunting suffers as un educated dont give a fuks gets into it imo

[OldTrapCollector 377]

Back in the day no 'keeper worth his wages would tolerate a single fox on his beat, and that was a nationwide initiative, thanks to the use of snares, gin traps and poisons, and yet still rural foxes managed to sustain themselves ...

 

OTC

[gonetoearth 5,144]

GOOGLE THEIR SITE THE VETERINARY ASSOCIATION FOR WILD LIFE MANAGEMENT

[Ideation 8,216]

Back in the day no 'keeper worth his wages would tolerate a single fox on his beat, and that was a nationwide initiative, thanks to the use of snares, gin traps and poisons, and yet still rural foxes managed to sustain themselves ...

 

OTC

 

true in many senses, but there is also the paradox that many shooting estates were owed by landed gentry that hunted with the mounted packs, as such many of those tat owned the estates wanted a certain level of fox population maintained and so many keepers had to go about their jobs with the added frustration of getting into shit for being too effective at their fox control. This is not just from my imagination but from conversations with keepers and land owners from a generation or two ago.

 

Also back in the day what you said may have prevailed on many shoots, but there was also a lot of land that was not used to release game etc and was farm land, this land would have surely been subject to little in the way of serious fox control? I'm talking about the arable land.

Edited September 5, 2010 by Ideation

[Ideation 8,216]

GOOGLE THEIR SITE THE VETERINARY ASSOCIATION FOR WILD LIFE MANAGEMENT

 

Very interesting. Is anyone counting the ones that are killed though? Surely those estimates don't take into account the number hunted accurately?