Originally Posted by
Oldtimr
They are also very good at getting rid of field mice and voles. Since the white footed field mouse is the biggest vector of deer ticks, which carry Lyme disease in the US, it is beneficial to have foxes on your property and they eat a lot more mice and voles than rabbits and pheasants and they are pretty good at catching groundhogs which are the bane of farmers in my state. So far as rabies goes, yes foxes can get rabies, however raccoons and skunks and feral cats are bigger rabies vectors.
The problem around here is the Fox seem to dominate the eco system. The Fox get so thick after a few generates they eat/crowd everything else out.
One thing I never have figured out is how the Nutria seem to thrive in heavy Fox areas, while most every other animal gets scarce.
They encourage the hunters to thin out the Fox population here and there seems no shortage of Fox around. The county just sponsored a Derby in February in my local woods.
The trick is to thin the population out on a regular basis so they don't over populate. A few generations and you have Fox coming out of your ears.
The dominant males are often polygamist and have 2-3 females in different dens, they drive of the young males. 4-6 pups a female, half of them female and things can get way out of balance in a few generations.
They also have some sort of litter size sense, the larger the available territory, the larger the litter.
Just an oddity, but I saw one male that was brindle and not red, that had to be 35 pounds. I swear I thought he was a Yote at first.
We had a local Kindergarten that was under renovation, It had scaffolding all around it, it had a domed roof. Early morning I glanced up and sitting 30 feet off the ground right in the middle of that roof was a Fox. I trapped that one, gave me the willies thinking about all those kids outside playing in the dirt along with the Fox scat.
The trick is not to let them get out of hand, population wise. And keep them afraid of humans so they don't get to comfortable, move in and take over.