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Management of the rural and urban fox

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The UK fox population is estimated to be some 240,000 (pre-breeding) of which 14% are in urban locations. Some 425,000 cubs are born each year and clearly unless the population is to increase, a similar number of foxes must die each year.

The fox is almost without natural predators in the UK other than man so that unless the population is managed and up to 68% of the post-breeding population culled:

  • Death will occur through disease, starvation or injury.
  • Numbers of foxes will rise progressively
  • Predation on vulnerable livestock will increase and become unacceptable in some areas.
  • The level of predation on game and other ground-nesting birds will increase
  • Other nuisance behaviours (e.g. digging in suburban gardens) will become more commonplace.

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Natural biological control of fox numbers will only occur when shortage of food, as a result of overpopulation and disease suppress reproductive activity or cause a significant rise in mortality.

The rural fox is presently in good shape precisely because it is managed and as a consequence is not a serious pest in most areas.

The combination of shooting, snaring and hunting as practised in varying degrees across the country represents a well-tried management system that would be very difficult to improve. Since the banning in England, Wales and Scotland of hunting with hounds, wildlife managers have regrettably been forced to rely more heavily on the less humane methods of control namely snaring and shooting. But if biodiversity is to be preserved fox numbers must be controlled. The current campaign by the single issue animal rights organisations to ban snares is therefore not in the interest of biodiversity and the wider picture.

Non lethal methods of control (contraception), as yet untried, would be impractical, expensive and unnecessary

The dispersal effect of hunting is valuable in preventing concentrations of foxes in areas where there are vulnerable livestock

The majority of foxes culled in the UK are shot using a rifle. Wounding rates using a rifle can be up to 48% and for a shotgun as high as 60%. Killing rates increase but wounding rates do not decrease with the skill of the marksmen

Urban foxes are amenable to trapping, but rural foxes are not.

Hunting provides a vital search and dispatch system for detecting wounded and diseased animals in the countryside.

Foxes carry a number of nasty diseases transmissible to man and domestic animals

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The Quarry Species