The female (vixen) stays in the den, protecting the offspring until they are weaned and relies on the male (dog fox) to bring her food. Baby fox (kits, pups, or cubs) are suckled for the first four weeks, then progressively weaned until seven weeks old. Foxes breed in winter and kits are born in early to midspring. The science is clear killing foxes on sight does not control the fox population, but it does cause pain and suffering to the fox family. Hugh Kolb, author of Country Foxes, claims that mathematical models show that, to make a reduction in the number of foxes, you would need to kill over 75% of the current population. The female fox can increase her litter size in response to culling and the dead fox is soon replaced. Also, foxes can and do control their own numbers by their breeding patterns. More foxes are drawn into the opened territory than lived there before and can lead to an actual increase in the overall fox population. When one fox is killed other foxes from outside the area will move in to take over the freed food supply. True, the fox could easily have been on his way to our chicken coop to kill, maim, but mostly to eat, our chickens, so shooting him on sight was justified to protect our flock, right? Not necessarily.įoxes are territorial animals, and the size of their territory is related to food availability. What should we do when a nuisance animal like a fox threatens our chickens? Shoot it on sight? That’s what happened to a fox on the farm the other day when it was spotted getting too close to the coop. Yes, we also missed the laying hens we lost in the attack, although they were easily replaced. Many of us still fondly recall our favorite rooster, Goliath, who lost his life trying to protect his flock in a predator attack. We want chickens to provide us with eggs. There is a constant battle going on between residents of Farmcolony and resident foxes over our chickens.
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