Foxes

Foxer101

Lads my area has seen a massive decline in foxes over the last few years.. any idea on what could be the cause, apart from lamping or shooting because very little amount of people lamp or shoot around where i am,,

bunny shooter

Just because you don't see them doesn't mean they aren't there :eek:

Foxer101

ther's a few about but definately nowhere near as many,, 2 or 3 years ago you'd get 5 or 6 in a night this year the most we got in a night was 3 and we traveled alot further on the land then usual

bunny shooter

Maybe the harder than usual winter cut their numbers?

endasmail

Foxer101 wrote: »

ther's a few about but definately nowhere near as many,, 2 or 3 years ago you'd get 5 or 6 in a night this year the most we got in a night was 3 and we traveled alot further on the land then usual

no wonder theres fu*k all about
if your going out and knocking 5 or 6 in a night

bunny shooter

I find there are always foxes no matter how many you take out of an area. If you take out one another will move into the area in a short time.

Vegeta

endasmail wrote: »

no wonder theres fu*k all about
if your going out and knocking 5 or 6 in a night

Have you ever shot 5 duck or pheasant in a day? 5 rabbits?

You make a fair criticism if you are just shooting them for sport. It's in your interest to leave a few so you can shoot them at a later date

On the other hand if you are shooting them to protect a vested interest then the more shot in that area and surrounding area the better.

The law provides for both.

Foxer101

Vegeta wrote: »

Have you ever shot 5 duck or pheasant in a day? 5 rabbits?

You make a fair criticism if you are just shooting them for sport. It's in your interest to leave a few so you can shoot them at a later date

On the other hand if you are shooting them to protect a vested interest then the more shot in that area and surrounding area the better.

The law provides for both.

My uncle has a sheep farm and loses 15-30 lambs a year due to foxes,, but last year and so far this year while doing the bit of fox control i'v seen very liitle of them,,

i dont mind seeing them about once their not doing any harm but then in lambing season i do be getting calls non-stop from sheep farmers around the area.. Last year and this year were my quitest years ever

i dont think i'm making a criticism by helpin farmers,, am i??:eek:

Foxer101

bunny shooter wrote: »

I find there are always foxes no matter how many you take out of an area. If you take out one another will move into the area in a short time.

I find that too but when you take a few from an area and only one comes and moves in it wil take a year or so for them to re-populate in that are

Vegeta

Foxer101 wrote: »

i dont think i'm making a criticism by helpin farmers,, am i??:eek:

I was quoting a different poster who was criticising you for shooting 5-6 in a night.

Foxer101

Oh i see,, Sorry about that,, still getting used to this you know..

Vegeta

Foxer101 wrote: »

Oh i see,, Sorry about that,, still getting used to this you know..

No worries

endasmail

Vegeta wrote: »

I was quoting a different poster who was criticising you for shooting 5-6 in a night.

hold your horses there vegeta
if ya read the initial post ,the op was asking has anyone noticed a decline in foxes
the fact is if your going out shooting 5 or 6 foxes a night there is going to be a decline ,
im not criticising the man .....so chill

Vegeta

endasmail wrote: »

,
im not criticising the man .....so chill

My apologies then but it was your coarse language which led me to believe otherwise

endasmail

Vegeta wrote: »

My apologies then but it was your coarse language which led me to believe otherwise

im a bit rough around the edges alright:)

johngalway

Could be any amount of reasons to my mind. Most of which if I speculate I'll cause offense to someone. All I'll say is in my area we shot a lot of vixens who had young or were pregnant last year. Now, in fairness, I haven't been out 1/2 of the amount of time I was last year, but I'm not seeing as many when I am out.

Hard to know with the cold weather. Anything mangey in that time would have had it real rough, if they didn't die. Reckon the biggest problem foxes would have had during that time would be finding grub, a lot of their usual menu would have been off limits.

welsummer

Foxer101 wrote: »

Lads my area has seen a massive decline in foxes over the last few years.. any idea on what could be the cause, apart from lamping or shooting because very little amount of people lamp or shoot around where i am,,

what area are you hunting

ormondprop

my father and his friends were out hunting every sunday over the winter, i only managed to get out a few times, and we met and shot a lot less foxes than other years, but we see them around the whole time at night and dead on the road, we lamped our farm and a few farms around us a nice few times and rarely saw anything, then during the middle of the day at random times we might spot a lad walkin through the fields (only ever happened when you have no gun with you:rolleyes:) they all seem to be hanging around all the big areas of cover and forestry, and we dont usually have enough guns to hunt the big covers or else big forests would be near by and its just not worth hunting them incase we'd lose the dogs

landkeeper

don't worry they'll be back just look at the hammering foxes got 25yrs ago when the skins were worth money at the end of that it was hard to even find a fox , yet within 2 years they were back as plentifull as before but no mangey /thin undernourished ones
nature abhors a vacum, in a previous life i used to lamp snare and dig foxes on a certain piece of ground as part of the job no matter how many we dealt with and it averaged a couple of hundred every year for 3 years there was allways another one
i am these days though seeing more foxes àbout during the day i wonder maybe are they starting to change their habits become less nocturnal maybe hunt more during the day , there is a lot more forestry around these days , the lads i know who still use terriers rarely find foxes to ground these days but put plenty out of small plantations etc