Fox Attack Question

[Redcatcher]

I have had fox attacks on and off and through the years, with sometimes years passing by in between them. The worst attack of all took place a couple of weeks ago. I had been setting a trap every night and finally got a huge female last night. I am sure it was the same one that attacked my chickens since I smelled skunk in the corner of the chicken house and this individual had obviously been sprayed by a skunk awhile back. I am still afraid to let my chickens free range though. According to the predator poll, fox attacks are not that common with BYCers but maybe someone out there has dealt with them. Are there likely more out there or is this one likely just a rogue that was doing all the killing?

 

[sourland]

Generally a pair will have a territory that overlaps that of several others. Somewhere in the area, there is probably a dog fox and 2-5 three quarter grown kits. Remove one and another fills the void. Every winter I trap 40 to 50 acre parcel. One year I caught 28 fox, and the least that I have caught in a year was 8. Not all were resident- they simply moved in when a vacancy occurred. When I was a kid, it was extremely unusual to see a red fox.

 

[bertman]

Redcatcher, I'm glad you finally got the critter. Mystery solved.

Now to figure out how to deal with the possible mate.


My question is: if the one you trapped was the primary hunter/huntress for the fox family and the other fox did not participate in the chicken killing, will the newbie start raiding you? Of course, it could have been both adults that were hunting your birds. No way of telling, I guess.

Good luck with this.

 

[bryan99705]

It would be nice to know where you are at but each fox has their own territory with little overlap and as the young ones strike out on their own, when grown, they establish their own area or take over another dead fox's area. Chances are you will always have fox in your area but just maybe different ones as the current ones get trapped, hit by cars, chased off by property development or killed off. Fox use their speed to hunt and are opportunists like most predators. If they can run thru your yard and grab a meal on the way, they will, a obstacle can easily deflect them away if they are simply passing by. They will work at getting to your birds if they are hungry, feeding young ones, if they have established that you have easy food for them, or the attractant to too great to resist like a large flock moving along the fencerow.

A perimeter electric fence is a great way to discourage fox from identifing your yard as a food source or if you have a existing fence, simply patch it up and add a skirt to it by simply laying a swath of wire down and hog ring it to the base of the existing fence wire.