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Fox behaviour.


39TDS
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Last night a fox came and killed 10 of my 15 geese, sort of ate a bit of one of them but generally just killed them.

I am assuming it was fox, what looked like fox prints in the dust, one goose with head detached but rest just killed with obvious wounds to their back between the wings. One eaten on the back between the wings. Must admit I would expect them to go for the breast where there is more meat. Neighbours dogs aren't completely ruled out mind.

This is the third attack in maybe 10 years, the last was 18 months ago. 

I have always believed that the resident fox knows there is an electric fence and just keeps away. I don't shoot that fox as he does me no harm and keeps the others away.

Am I right? If I go on a revenge mission to wipe out every fox I can will my remaining geese be safer or not? Shall I sit up all night waiting for his return or will that be in 18 months time when I am not expecting it?

Is it just country life and I should know that by now?

 

One of the geese was  hand reared by my missus.  Today was his 1st birthday and she went out to wish him happy birthday, you can imagine what distress greeted her. 😞

Edited by 39TDS
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Sorry to hear that.

My grandmother lost a couple bantams to a buzzard a few weeks back and the local badger population quite frequently test the run for a way in. 

Not ideal but as you say, that's life in the country, the buzzards do take their share of the pigeon round here and in turn I regularly see the buzzards being harassed by the local crows. 

I wouldn't hesitate in sorting a fox though. 

Edited by Farmboy91
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They get frenzied and kill everything. Likely it was disturbed by someone or something. Also likely to be a vixen feeding a big litter of cubs. It is unfortunately how things. I would stay up and shoot her but that does leave dependent cubs if it is a vixen, I don't want to get into a moral debate over shooting vixens and leaving the cubs. Your problem now if you leave her is she knows how to get into the pen now and will come back and get in again. 

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Sorry to hear of this. Maybe worth sitting up late tonight as a one off and see if it comes back. try setting a camera up if you have one before you go to bed. Take a picture of the suspect footprints if you can and share it to see what people think

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Leaving the local fox,  didn't work with reguards keeping others away. I'd get rid of him, and nothing to say  it wasn't that fix that done the damage.

 Used to be an auld bag that got her meat in my buddy's butchers. He does a lot of lamping and she's ell aware of it. She doesn't like shooting, and used to brag about her pet fox that would come to the back door for scraps even during the day. Never touched her beloved hens. Not even interested in them. This went on for months. She'd come in for her bits and even showed butcher pictures of her fox. Saying "nobody's gonna harm her fox" .

 Well, one morning, she burst into shop yelling and screaming. "He's killing me hens, he's killing me hens." Do something quick. 

 Well butcher gets on the phone to his lamping buddy, and asked was he around. He was, and went out with the rifle.  He literally had to wait at gate just down from the hen house, for half an hour, and fox potter's up to him with one of the hens in his mouth. No fear at all. Job done, and he suggested to this one that he'd clean up her land of fox's. She said thanks, but no thanks, and that was that.

 

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5 hours ago, Benthejockey said:

They get frenzied and kill everything. Likely it was disturbed by someone or something. Also likely to be a vixen feeding a big litter of cubs. It is unfortunately how things. I would stay up and shoot her but that does leave dependent cubs if it is a vixen, I don't want to get into a moral debate over shooting vixens and leaving the cubs. Your problem now if you leave her is she knows how to get into the pen now and will come back and get in again. 

They kill as much as they can, and will, if allowed, return to collect what they cannot carry in one go. My mate's hen house was raided by one, and 23 chickens were killed. He found many of them hidden under brambles, or loosely covered with earth etc so that they could be collected later. 

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16 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

Weasel maybe .?

They can  attack huge birds and always go for the nack of the neck area .

A weasel ? You are joking , Right ?

Probably a dog fox or a barren vixen, and he/she has been disturbed, a vixen with cub's, would have killed one first and took it for cub's then came back. It will be back.

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Yes, a fox will kill all it can.  I shoot every one I see and they still keep coming back.  We have shooting estates on one side and town on the other still get a contasnt stream of them.

Woodland Trust area on one side is a haven.

There are no fixed rules in love and war.

Edited by Walker570
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2 hours ago, Ultrastu said:

No .not joking .though more likey a fox or mink.

A weasle would only kill the one .

Screenshot_20200603-164745.png

Screenshot_20200603-164623.png

Top pic isn't a weasel and neither is the bottom one, not sure what the top one actually is, looks more like a mink, but the bottom picture is most definitely a stoat. A goose is far too big for a weasel.

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37 minutes ago, bornfree said:

I shoot foxes on a commercial goose farm 65'000 geese this year. And foxes always kill geese by the neck and 9 times out of 10 they just take the head and neck.

That's interesting, just one of them had the head bitten off. Not only bitten off but about 10 yards from the goose. I would say it had been moved there but I suppose it is possible the goose flapped away minus it's head (chickens do so I expect a goose would)

The whole field is 50x30m and the bodies were scattered throughout.

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17 minutes ago, 39TDS said:

That's interesting, just one of them had the head bitten off. Not only bitten off but about 10 yards from the goose. I would say it had been moved there but I suppose it is possible the goose flapped away minus it's head (chickens do so I expect a goose would)

The whole field is 50x30m and the bodies were scattered throughout.

We have 500 geese in 100 X 100m pens and 96 is the largest kill by one fox in one night. And the ducks are 500 in 50 X 100m pens and the largest kill is 240.

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2 minutes ago, bornfree said:

We have 500 geese in 100 X 100m pens and 96 is the largest kill by one fox in one night. And the ducks are 500 in 50 X 100m pens and the largest kill is 240.

Struggling to think of a response that will get past the swear filter.

Devastating.

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45 minutes ago, 39TDS said:

That's interesting, just one of them had the head bitten off. Not only bitten off but about 10 yards from the goose. I would say it had been moved there but I suppose it is possible the goose flapped away minus it's head (chickens do so I expect a goose would)

The whole field is 50x30m and the bodies were scattered throughout.

Must have been Super Weasel :ninja:

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