Patrick’s top tips
foxes have an uncanny ability to detect when fresh calves are due. This seems to draw them in from miles around, but the difference is that, unlike with sheep, they only seem to hang around for a few days.
To maximise your success, you need to know what the local farmers are up to all year round – establishing such a comprehensive intelligence network can take time.
Foraging
Another factor that can make fox populations suddenly appear to drop is when the matriarchal vixens are pregnant. They tend to lie low and let the other members of the group bring food. As a result, they are rarely seen unless you’ve culled all the providers, whereupon they have little choice but to go out and do the foraging themselves.
There are all sorts of other factors that can influence fox numbers too. In the early 1980s, Bristol was said to have the highest population density of foxes in the world. Then they were hit by mange and before long most had died a slow and lingering death. At the opposite end of the scale, a mild winter can mean rabbit numbers soar and by the following autumn there will be an awful lot more sub-adult foxes to deal with.
I’m not old enough to have witnessed myxomatosis in the 1950s – that dreadful disease which wiped out most of the UK’s rabbit population – but I’m told that fox numbers soon followed. I know it certainly caused a major social upheaval in the rural human population too. People who formerly relied on bunnies to feed their families were suddenly faced with starvation, and overnight had to move to the cities to earn enough money to feed their loved ones.
Given the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic, who is to say that we won’t see another disease do something similar? I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed it never happens.
• Nothing beats good networking – getting to know your local farmers and establishing good relationships with them is vital if you’re to know when and where things like lambing or calving are due.
• Any talk of ‘drop outs’ – that is, when the so-called charities release urban foxes in the countryside – should be viewed with huge amounts of scepticism. But it is important that any such thoughts should be kept to yourself. While I have personally had to deal with several, I would say that more than nine out of 10 such reports I hear about are simply wrong.
• If you live well away from any major urban conurbations, you will generally only see healthy foxes. If you start to see lots of mange, though, it’s possible that a batch of town foxes has been dumped locally. Sometimes the evidence is more obvious – such as freshly sutured operation scars or even tattoos.
• If you’re struggling to find any foxes, stop and think about what they could be eating, then go wherever that is. One of the fallback options for a hungry fox is to eat worms that come to the surface during the night. This needs damp soil, though, so if it hasn’t rained for some time, forget that.
• Calves being born outdoors is a major draw for foxes, although they don’t tend to stick around for more than a couple of days after it’s all over. Once the afterbirth and milky dung has been hoovered up, there’s not much to keep them there.
• Sheep are a magnet to foxes, so I always check them first when I get to any of my permissions. Almost everything – from afterbirth and milky dung to the dead and dying will keep Monsieur le Reynard close by. It’s important to remember that different breeds will lamb at different times of year. My local flock is a mix of zwartbles and Dorsets.
• It’s not unusual to see the occasional fox with bits missing – the one pictured (left) had lost half his tail – but if several appear together, suspect that an animal ‘welfare’ organisation has been releasing urban captures in your area. If this is the case, it’s time to scour the area with your rifle as they’re likely to attempt to sate their hunger on easy prey such as hedgehogs and domestic pets.
• I don’t like shooting vixens when they’re pregnant or nursing, but a) it’s not possible to differentiate in the dark and b) if you won’t do it, the farmers will soon find someone else who will.
“A fox will lurk near ewes ready to mount a snatch raid”
First, find a suitable location. I like to start with a rough grass bank topped with an open hedge. Remember, whenever we introduce a new skill to a dog, we want it to have success as that is how it will learn.
So, in the initial stages, we do not want to make it too difficult for the dog. As the dog learns, I move on to a thicker hedge and will constantly vary distances and length of time before I send it.
Remember
Initially, walk the dog at heel through the hedge to set up a memory retrieve, hence the reason you need to avoid a solid bit of cover. When you reach the other side, sit the dog up and throw out the dummy. Don’t go too far out to begin with; you can gradually increase the distance from the hedge as the dog gains confidence. Ensure the dog sees the dummy go out and then walk back the way you came, taking the dog with you.
Once the dog is confident about being sent from your side, you can then introduce your handling (left, right and back). Set the exercise up exactly as before, but this time leave the dog at the original spot and set yourself up to give the dog a handling command. Begin by staying fairly close to the dog to prevent it coming back towards you, but if you have taken your time building up the exercise, you should find the dog will manage the retrieve confidently. You will need to mix this up and vary your commands and at some point move locations to seal the exercise.