Fox Question

[lecoper]

I have been shooting foxes for a considerable number of years now but I am currently seeing something that has me puzzled. I am shooting a lot of very very small cubs. Others are telling me they are seeing the same thing. My question is can foxes have 2 litters in a season or can anyone offer an explanation to these very late cubs.

[axel]

I think it might be a case of the vixen losing her first litter for one reason or another
and going on to have a second.

earlier on in the year long after the fox mating season was over I was shooting vixens that had clearly had a litter and lost them and was back in season. At the time the vixens where running with 2 some times 3 dogs in tow.

This might be the answer.

axel

[devon stalker]

same here size wise ! fairly sure its not second litter though as i am out regular and started seeing the cubs normal time of the year,if it was a late litter i would have thought they would appear above ground later !

[fizzbangwhallop]

There was a recent post somewhere, I think by Paddysp, that if the matriarch vixen had a her litter and there was plenty of food about she would allow a subordinate vixen to come into heat... and if the good food supply continued then the next subordinate down the the line could be allowed to come into heat too giving rise to 3 ages of cubs in one family group.

The other thing that came out a few years ago was that one litter could consist of cubs from more than one sire.

Fascinating stuff.

Cheers

Fizz

[lecoper]

There was a recent post somewhere, I think by Paddysp, that if the matriarch vixen had a her litter and there was plenty of food about she would allow a subordinate vixen to come into heat... and if the good food supply continued then the next subordinate down the the line could be allowed to come into heat too giving rise to 3 ages of cubs in one family group.

Very interesting and it would certainly explain what I am seeing. This year I have shot very small cubs in May, June, July and August all on the same ground, never seen or heard of it before.

[garyw]

a vixen can only have one litter a year as for a matriarchal vixen "allowing" other vixens in her "group" i doubt that would/could happen although i stand to be corrected, the red fox is unlike a lot of other "group living"mammals where a matriarch is the only female to come into season to mate.
as for the small cubs various factors can affect this -late mating/birth a lack of a constant food source look at town foxes always mangey and skinny with of course a few well fed ones by senile demented old ladies.

[axel]

If you can get a copy of the book Running With The Fox by David Macdonald ( try Amazon ) it explains a lot about fox behaviour
as for the matriarchal vixen allowing another subordinate vixen to breed. you only have to look at the amount of times there are two litters in the same earth.
This year I had two litters in the same log pile with two separate vixens looking after the cubs but also another litter within 300yds .
That was a total of 16.cubs three vixens and one dog fox.

And a friend of mine some years back had 13 cubs to two vixens in the same earth so it does happen.
axel

[fizzbangwhallop]

I had a look through the various forums this morning and couldn't find it so I sent Paddy an email about it.........

Result! I knew I'd seen it somewhere.... Shooting Times published his article mid-June on whether to shoot foxes during the cubbing season and included the bit on the matriarch/subordinates as one explanation why cubs can be seen from mid/late-December through to June/July depending on the weather/supply of food/location etc etc.

I passed my copy on and it's been passed on again so I might be lucky and get it back.

I've had a look for it on-line but no joy there.

Cheers

Fizz

[Longsider]

Hi,
If it helps I remembered the article in shooting times and just Google searched for "shooting times june 2015" .there was a article called "summer fox stakeout" in the 24th June 2015 issue . if this is the article you are interested in and you want it www.pocketmags.com sell the back issue ( as a download I think ) for £3.99. HTH Ricky