The Fox Death Project and Criteria

 After six months I had hoped that the message had gotten through but I noted last week "Who was the man wanted to hear about dead foxes?" and "Who do I tell about a dead fox?"

That would be me.

This is what happens normally; a dead fox is seen, council are told and fox is picked up and goes to incinerator. We learn abosolutely nothing from its death.

Since a number of odd deaths were reported to me from Bristol in June I fought to get official post mortems carried out to see whether the foxes had been poisoned (as suspected) or killed some other way -my main concern other than poison was that disease might be involved. It took months but The Fox Deaths Project was established in the City and foxes meeting certain criteria should be reported to me to see whether someone needs to go and check it out. In recent months my colleague Zoe Webber has been doing a great job on this side of things.

Above: NOT a natural death scene

Firstly, if you see a dead fox note where it is -if it is in the gutter or road/pavement then it is far more likely that the animal was killed by a car. An exception to the rule of ignoring foxes on pavements is if they are found side-by-side or nose-to-tail because two and even three foxes killed by a car are known but they would not then be found neatly placed together. We have had three such cases since June. 

Does the fox look like it has external injuries or is there blood from wounds?

The easiest thing to do is take a photo of the fox(es) as you found them and this can be used to tell how they died or whether something looks odd.

Exact road location is needed so that a driver can find the body. If the body turns out to be RTA then we canb contact the council for it to be removed. If it fits our criteria it is submitted for post mortem examination to determine cause of death.

I can be contacted by Face Book Messenger and please include the images, where and when the fox(es) were found.

Most members are probably aware that preliminary post mortem results have indicated babesia (Human babesiosis is an emerging intraerythrocytic infection caused by protozoal parasites and transmitted by Ixodid ticks.) and we are also aware of two with respiratory problems that we are awaiting test results on. Unitil we are able to rule out any transmittable disease (cross covid contamination is another POSSIBLE aspect we are concerned over) it is strongly suggested that any taxidermist not pick up foxes that look in very good condition but gets in touch with us.

This is NOT a panic situation we need a few more results before we can determine how widespread any basesia is and we are just making sure that those in wildlife groups are aware of the situation. Bristol is leading the way in carrying out this work and it is a pity that rescues around the country were unwilling to become involved. It is hoped that by early 2022 an all access preliminary report can be released on the post mortem conclusions.

Therefore, the weirdo interested in dead foxes is me.

(LadyofHats) Mariana Ruiz Villarreal