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Thread: Hey...lets be careful out there!!!

  1. #31
    Tribal Elder
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    well we gotto stop providing food for them... they had to shoot a tame deer in the highlands one time after it got excited and injured a tourist... very sad, it was a local attraction until then...

    1000th post...wow

  2. #32
    Moderator Roadkillphil's Avatar
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    Well, I must apologies for mocking this issue as last night a fox (probably) tried haiving off with my rucksack!!! At 02:30GMT this morning I awoke in my hammock to hear my rucksac containing my food being dragged off. Clad only in boxers and boots I gave chase and saw a pair of eyes staring back at me in the light of my head torch before disappearing into the night. I retrieved my sack (10m away!) and hung it up out of reach. I then jumped back in the hammock and stayed on watch for about half hour before dropping off again. In the morning I inspected my pack and found a bite mark in the raincover... Teeth Holes right through!! Little monkey!!
    I was in no way frightened, but was a little shocked and also disorientated at the time...
    I'll be keeping everything off the floor from now on.

    I'm gonna post a new thread later about this trip with a photo of the damage.

    Cheers

    Phil
    Storms have a way of teaching what nothing else can.

    ALWAYS Leave a Trace

  3. #33
    Ent FishyFolk's Avatar
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    I have enough to worry about bears, lynxes, wolves, wolverines, and moose, if I am not to worry about the fox as well...
    Victory awaits the one, that has everything in order - luck we call it
    Defeat is an absolute consequense for the one that have neglected to do the necessary preparations - bad luck we call it
    (Roald Amundsen)

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  4. #34
    Trapper
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    I studied ecology (hooo harkkkk at him - 'e's got an ology) and in every case the human interference into natural systems has caused problems with wildlife 'savaging' humans. Even the vampire bats of S America have started to (rarely) 'feed' off humans because of encroachment into tropical rain forest by human populations thereby depriving the bats of some of their natural feeding sources. I agree with the comment that most city foxes look particular dishevelled. I also thank Roadkillphil, Martin, Scouser and Raven bringing it back to reality. Foxes are like most predators - opportunistic - if you provide an easier, less energy burning mode of feeding they will take it. We have - we go to supermarkets (alright probably most in this forum do it grudgingly but we still do...)

    Studies have shown that even lamb kills by foxes are by a large majority (I think it was 97-98%) due to weak or sickly lambs who would have been likely to die anyway (because it is easier to hunt the weak or sickly). I also acknowledge that it is a huge cost to someone trying to make a living and that this no consolation. But that is the balance of countryside management for human needs and to try and keep natural systems still working.

    There will even be the more 'humanised' animals that will try their luck. The fox killing for fun is a human response to explain something we don't at first understand. When I was young we were often brought waif and stray wildlife, amongst which were fox cubs found 'abandoned' (this, by the way, included a couple of gamekeeprs who had to kill the vixen and then didn't have the heart to kill the cubs when they found them!). There were days that we had reached the peak of food needed by the foxes and so they stored the spare food by digging it dog fashion into the ground of their compound, one by one. If the fox chicken mass-murderer was left to its devices the chickens would be eventually be taken away one by one and used when needed. "What - they store food?" Who would think any animal at the top of a food chain would do that :-) Again I appreciate that is a small consolation when you have invested money into stock animals. I'm just saying that it is natural or semi-natural (in that we have intervened with more accessible food).

    If you provide food that is easier to get - whether it is confined prey animals, food in bins or food in easily split tents - then the fox is smart enough to take the chance (foxes are very 'bright'' - in most cases probably more than the average household dog. Just because a large fox has been found doesn't mean that I (as a short arse) have the right to start panicking because the average height of humans has escalated in the last two decades -my god you giants will be eating my chickens next and i'll have to apply for a licence to shoot you (it's okay I don't really have a Napoleonic complex - and in fact in his era Napoleon was above average height).

    So please let's keep a bit of reality about it. But I also accept that those who invest money in something might want to protect their investment.

    Soap box (nicely carved out of prime fatwood!) over

  5. #35
    Ranger Tony1948's Avatar
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    All you town'es out there take care,there are thing's in the dark that will eat you'r stash or YOU, atb when wild camping and rebember................DONT GET EATEN BY THE BEARS or HOGGYPIGS HAHA.

  6. #36
    Moderator Roadkillphil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by comanighttrain View Post
    well we gotto stop providing food for them...
    On this point it seems with the animal kingdom you cannot undo the damage. Even if we stop feeding them, they're still gonna try. An example is all the futile signs in all the coastal towns of Cornwall asking "please do not feed the gulls" Unfortunately the gulls are now programmed to scavenge pasties and ice creams from the unwary emmett. Even if we never intentionally fed them again, they'd still nick yer pasty.
    From foxes to rats to gulls and cockroaches, they've evolved new survival strategies by living in close contact with modern human activities. Its gonna take decades of sustained human behaviour changes to make a difference to these strategies. I personally have no faith in the idea that 7bn humans will change their ways.
    It seems that our activities on the planet (major ecological disruption) turn some animals into pests (in our eyes) and when that happens we turn to the gun. This has been happening ever since we migrated out of Africa thousands of years ago, everywhere we went, the local megafauna was extinct within a few hundred years... Big cats, big lizards in fact any large predators. It's us or them. Not sure if you could exterminate the fox population totally tho....

    As for my fox encounter, I'm just gutted I didn't see it.
    Storms have a way of teaching what nothing else can.

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  7. #37
    Native KaiTheIronHound's Avatar
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    @Phil, seems as if foxes are cheeky bastards everywhere you go eh mate? I've had foxes wandering around my camps in Aus, even had one of the cheeky little buggers make off with a rabbit i'd just chucked an arrow through! Looked at me as if to say "That was great teamwork, thanks!" and headed for the hills!

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