Over Feeding Foxes IS Killing Them

 

The Woodland Trust:

"Most foxes live in rural areas including woodland, farmland and wetland habitats. But that doesn’t mean you’ll see a fox when you next go for a country walk - rural foxes are very shy. You are more likely to see an urban fox trotting down the street or denning under your shed!"

Correction: since the 1980s the rural fox population has been at an all time low due to hunting, night time shooters acting as "pest control" for farmers (cash in hand) or men and women who simply love going out and killing things(including pet cats -"Basil brush disguised as a tabby cat LOL!"- deer and anything else they fancy. 

Add natural deaths such as disease, etc., and the "everywhere" country fox is far from itr. In the Welsh valleys in the late 1990s weekend fox hunts (drinking 'clubs' with mixed dogs) were finding it difficult even to find a fox -a year old cub was a "great success". 

It is probably truer that more foxes are urban now than pure old type country foxes. The Old Briti9sh Cur or Common fox, rather like the jackal elsewhere, has always had a symbiotic relationship with humans and this is also true of the Red fox; humans moving around and setting up new homes means waste food and other items (bin raiding is a thing long gone with wheelie bins which would require foxes to start climbing ladders and lifting bin lids! Human waste attracts rodents -mice and rats

The Woodland Trust on what foxes eat:

"Foxes have a really diverse diet. They are expert hunters, catching rabbits, rodents, birds, frogs and earthworms as well as eating carrion. But they aren’t carnivorous - they are actually omnivores as they dine on berries and fruit too. Urban foxes will also scavenge for food in dustbins, and often catch pigeons and rats."

In the countryside rabbit was always THE top food item. There are even accounts from farmers of foxes denning near free ranging chickens and walking straight past them to return within minutes with a rabbit.  Some farmers who recognise the worth of a fox pick up rat tails (the only part a fox will not eat) each week to keep count of how many a fox has killed. Thirty was the top number I found and the farmer never realised he had that many rats.

You will note that "chicken" does not appear on the list of foods. This is because opportunistic foxes do not get many chances. People in towns and cities allow free roaming rabbits and chickens in their unsecure gardens and then call a fox all the names under the sun because it took a rabbit or chicken -buzzards and hawks also take advantage of "!townie stupidity". If you are serious about keeping chickens and rabbits BUY a fox proof hutch/enclosure -t6here are many types and sizes online.

Pigeons we know foxes will catch if there is the opportunity.

Possibly the biggest indicator of someones lack of any knowledge of foxes is the statement "foxes have stomachs like cement mixers -they can eat anything!".  No they cannot eat "anything" as they have systems adapted over millennia to a specific diet. They are hunters and scavengers but specific things as already noted. Eating those items gives a fox and its cubs immunity to certain diseases and we are seeing that immunity already vanishing.

Above: vixen possibly in early pregnancy

Below how a fox should look. Lithe and alert and ready to chase and catch rats as well as take any fruit etc it can find.

Below: these foxes are what any vet would called "grotesquely obese" -remember a fox is no bigger than a pet cat.  The amount of excess weight in these foxes will result in kidney, liver and other internal organs and what is being dished out in that mound of food can easily be described as obscene.

Leptospirosis and babesia have been found in foxes systems and they have a natural immunity probably because eating rodents that carry the disease helps build up that immunity.  After over 80 fox post mortems we have seen what is killing foxes (excluding cars) and we are finding kidney and liver damage and one thing killing foxes and cubs to a greater degree and this seems to be a national trend noted every cub season, is leptospirosis.

Why?

There are foxes that as soon as a feeder notes cubs, are fed raw chicken wings and legs 2-4 times a day. Uncooked chicken eggs are also put out. Cooked bones can shatter and choke foxes though some people still throw those out.  Chicken uncooked (or badly cooked) has a number of health issues attached to it and from the PM reports it appears those are appearing more.

A vixen has been seen returning to cubs every few minutes with a dead rat. Up to three in 15 minutes which tells us the natural food of the fox is in plentiful supply (and why we should let foxes and cats deal with rats and not wildlife and pet killing rodenticides.  Eating the rodents builds up the cubs defences against something like leptospirosis and they are just not getting the opportunity to do so. A fox will take every scrap of food you put out "Oh, the poor thing is starving!" -NO. It is storing food and much of it going to waste.  Every spring there are posts from gardeners about finding chicken pieces or raw/cooked eggs in their flower pots -that is because the fox stored it but did not need it as 1-2 times a day it got fresh food.

We have just had one fox whose stomach was "packed full of chicken" and that is not normal.  Chicken is not a natural daily food item for foxes. If you really believe that you need to "give a treat" then one chicken wing and legs a week is fine as it supplements the fox's diet 

Foxes will not starve: The estimated rat population in the UK is somewhere between 150 to 259 million. Putting that into perspective that is more than three and a half times the human population.

  Foxes are the best pest control you can get for nothing.  Global warming and environmental changes are making an impact and foxes are a good guide to environmental health.

Feeding huge amounts of junk food to foxes and from adult to young is all part of the ‘fox lovers’ attitude to gaining a “garden pet” (feeders do not pay vets to treat foxes they always expect rescues to do that) or enticing foxes and badgers into homes and hand feeding.

The attitude must change. Less junk food handed out. Unless, of course, you are deliberately trying to kill off as many foxes as possible and science is showing that this is what is going on.,