fox's mourning their dead

welsummer

Was doing my usual rounds first light this morning checking what had been around with the fresh tracks in the snow and noticed a lot a activity where i had laid out 3 dead fox's for disposal. they were there about 4 days and nothing had been around them and had been buried over by about 16 inches of snow. A fox had made an attemt of uncovering them, like as if to discover who it was laid out under the snow. Also some thing had made an attempt at feeding of them as i could see a hole pecked in the side of one of them. i presume it was a grey grow from the previously day as it was too early this morning for them to have done any damage.

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foxboy

could of been a rat that eat a hole in the fox
seen one do that with one i had laid out for grey crows and magpies last January

Invincible

I was down in Blessington,Wicklow some years ago,the gamekeeper there was giving us a demonstration on vermin control,he showed us a "midden",it was situated in a heather covered bog,in the middle of an area about 40 yds square that had been fenced off with sheep wire,just leaving a gap in the middle of each fence for the fox to pass through,he had buried some carcesses of sheep and fish offal in the centre,from the centre he had strimmed 4 paths in the heather to each side of the fence,he set snares on these passes and anchored the snare to a drag to preserve the pass,as he dispatched the fox's he piled them in the centre and they drew more fox's in to lunch.

ferrete

Invincible wrote: »

I was down in Blessington,Wicklow some years ago,the gamekeeper there was giving us a demonstration on vermin control,he showed us a "midden",it was situated in a heather covered bog,in the middle of an area about 40 yds square that had been fenced off with sheep wire,just leaving a gap in the middle of each fence for the fox to pass through,he had buried some carcesses of sheep and fish offal in the centre,from the centre he had strimmed 4 paths in the heather to each side of the fence,he set snares on these passes and anchored the snare to a drag to preserve the pass,as he dispatched the fox's he piled them in the centre and they drew more fox's in to lunch.

would that actually work?

landkeeper

yes it does a friend of mine operated something similar on a triangular 'island' where three deep ditches met there was a applecore left in the middle he had three planks going to the island about 5 foot long with a snare on each used to dump all the vermin he shot on it and when it was getting regular attention he would set the snares anything caught would fall of the plank game over
the secret is to have charlie using it confidently then set the snares when he is nice and relaxed about getting his supper

Invincible

ferrete wrote: »

would that actually work?

Well it did from the pile of fox's there that day,very effective.

robertpatterson

Ive left foxes out and come back to find other foxes feeding on them,
the weather wasnt even as bad as it is now so id say they do it all the time