Old adversaries

A voicemail from a farmer first thing in the morning is invariably a sign that a fox has been misbehaving in the night, and someone has woken up to the results of its mischief. This message told a common story. This time it related to a property bordering a farm where I regularly control foxes. As a rule, the numbers there are always fairly low, partly due to my efforts and the fact that foxes are also controlled on the surrounding farms.

This particular property bordered the lower wheat stubble fields of the farm, with nothing more than a wire fence separating the two. The gardens to this house are home to the owner’s chickens and ducks, and it was here that disaster had struck. Despite the poultry being shut up at night, a fox had managed to break into the ducks’