Frequency of visits to good hunting sites.

[NTSOG]

G'day,

I was wondering how frequently folks visit given hunting sites that are producing? The creek gully - extremely deep in some parts to the east - shown in the photo is about 1000 yards from where I am sitting as I type. The part of the creek I have permission to access is about 980 yards as the crow flies, more or less NE to SW. It's produced cats, foxes and the odd rabbit in a fairly short period and I've seen at a distance a few more 'customers'. There are also red deer up the hill to the south living in blue gums [not shown]. I don't want to push my luck and train the 'inhabitants' to realise I'm around. It's tempting to go there often as it is so close and convenient; sitting up on the ridge above the creek - at one point it's 135 feet above the creek flat - gives a great view.

Jim

[Ziege]

there is a little patch of bullrushes in the creek 500m from my house, when foxes are around I shoot one a week out of it on average, sometimes walk in there and 3 or 4 will come out, if the populations nearby are decent sized, the vacancies are filled fast.

[Skinna]

G'day,

I was wondering how frequently folks visit given hunting sites that are producing? The creek gully - extremely deep in some parts to the east - shown in the photo is about 1000 yards from where I am sitting as I type. The part of the creek I have permission to access is about 980 yards as the crow flies, more or less NE to SW. It's produced cats, foxes and the odd rabbit in a fairly short period and I've seen at a distance a few more 'customers'. There are also red deer up the hill to the south living in blue gums [not shown]. I don't want to push my luck and train the 'inhabitants' to realise I'm around. It's tempting to go there often as it is so close and convenient; sitting up on the ridge above the creek - at one point it's 135 feet above the creek flat - gives a great view.

Jim

Its a pretty small area to hunt...depends on animals youre wanting out of it, & whether you want to regularly hunt it, or wipe it out...
For bunny's, if there's only a few about take out & keep on top of the foxes & particularly take out all cats--cats will kill every bunny out if possible, foxes generally just take what they need to eat.

If you want it to produce regular foxes, leave them alone going into early winter & let one or 2 breeding pairs set up breeding nest there so you have some to shoot next season.
This time of year if local population is decent, foxes will continue to move into the territory as you remove them.

Just keep going there & see how you go--get a feel for the numbers yourself--you'll find it will change seasonally anyway...ill often not shoot an area, or pretend shoot (dryfire lol) on wouldbe prey if things are very thin on the ground, so still stake it all out.
If it gets boring ill change up what i do, say from driving around to enjoying a good walk-about, or a sit n wait snipe session instead of walking about...just mix it up so i still get enjoyment without taking away next seasons fun...

I like my bunny's tho--its good to have numbers so you can sit on a warren or area at dusk & take out a good few without having to worry about removing all the breeders.

[Ziege]

Hah, Letting foxes set up camp on any farm here would see you lose that as a place to shoot lol.

[Blr243]

If a paddock has a certain tucker that pigs really want or need I will visit it every night and all night 7 nights in a row. I noticed that all the other pigs close By to my shooting put up with all the shooting Till midnight because they are hungry , but after that they crack the sads and go home because they are nervous and 1/2 full. But if I was not there they would stay and eat all night. But without that tucker I spell areas And move around a bit so as not to scent it up too much

[bladeracer]

cats will kill every bunny out if possible, foxes generally just take what they need to eat.

Foxes will kill given an opportunity, they will stash food all around the area for the times when they can't find a feed. If there are rabbits, birds, mice and lizards aplenty though they'll generally just kill what they need at the time.

[Ziege]

cats will kill every bunny out if possible, foxes generally just take what they need to eat.

Foxes will kill given an opportunity, they will stash food all around the area for the times when they can't find a feed. If there are rabbits, birds, mice and lizards aplenty though they'll generally just kill what they need at the time.

this is very true, I once baited and every single bait was taken, no dead foxes for a week, until they had gone back, dug up their stash and eaten it... next thing 11 of 12 baits produced a dead fox.

[Skinna]

cats will kill every bunny out if possible, foxes generally just take what they need to eat.

Foxes will kill given an opportunity, they will stash food all around the area for the times when they can't find a feed. If there are rabbits, birds, mice and lizards aplenty though they'll generally just kill what they need at the time.

I cant see food/a carcass lasting too long in our climate...not long enough to last for lean times anyway... ...whether it be buried/stashed in cool for area for local conditions or buried in dry sand in dry as mallee, a carcass wont last very long before nature does its work...
My experience tells me they eat as they go...always forraging everything even insects...but ive never ever seen foxes running off burying sheep afterbirth, which is when food is at its highest quality in terms of protein & plentyful.
And thats when i get my biggest numbers of foxes--even bigger than dumb pup season.

[NTSOG]

G'day All,

Ziege I hadn't considered whether new 'tenants' would move in the fill vacancies of those shot and how quickly they will come. I know foxes move around a lot at night, but assumed they have fairly fixed ranges. As for foxes stashing food there was a great chicken massacre four years ago just across the way when some new chums from the city forgot to shut their coop. One silver coated beggar - he was often seen in daylight, but never shot - killed 34 in one go. We found one corpse, mostly buried, on the grass roadside about 580 yards from the killing site. The property pictured is running Angus cattle, but there are plenty of sheep around the district. The funny thing is that the owners of two properties [ a little further down the road] on which I hunt are not losing lambs to foxes. We certainly did years ago when we were running Suffolks.

JIm

[bladeracer]

I cant see food/a carcass lasting too long in our climate...not long enough to last for lean times anyway... ...whether it be buried/stashed in cool for area for local conditions or buried in dry sand in dry as mallee, a carcass wont last very long before nature does its work...
My experience tells me they eat as they go...always forraging everything even insects...but ive never ever seen foxes running off burying sheep afterbirth, which is when food is at its highest quality in terms of protein & plentyful.
And thats when i get my biggest numbers of foxes--even bigger than dumb pup season.

It doesn't last at all, foxes eat absolute garbage, totally putrid carrion they seem to consider a delicacy.

[animalpest]

Foxes will cache food that is excess to their current need. Most is buried between 20m to 400m away. They do take food back to the young too.

They certainly will kill in excess to their needs - surplus killing is typical of all canid species. Hence why dingoes/wild dogs will also surplus kill.

While you will get other foxes move into vacant territory, it generally occurs with younger foxes or if that area is better than where they are. A really good area is called an ecological sink.

Young foxes leave their natal areas in autumn so you will have more rapid fill of vacant territory then. Good time to shoot lots and still end up with more.
Mike

[Oldbloke]

G'day All,

Ziege I hadn't considered whether new 'tenants' would move in the fill vacancies of those shot and how quickly they will come. I know foxes move around a lot at night, but assumed they have fairly fixed ranges. As for foxes stashing food there was a great chicken massacre four years ago just across the way when some new chums from the city forgot to shut their coop. One silver coated beggar - he was often seen in daylight, but never shot - killed 34 in one go. We found one corpse, mostly buried, on the grass roadside about 580 yards from the killing site. The property pictured is running Angus cattle, but there are plenty of sheep around the district. The funny thing is that the owners of two properties [ a little further down the road] on which I hunt are not losing lambs to foxes. We certainly did years ago when we were running Suffolks.

JIm

Most species will do that. The territories are always changing.

[animalpest]

Actually research from GPS collared foxes show that most foxes have very stable territories. The exceptions are a foray or two to see whats outside their established home range and the odd one that travels a fair distance (20-30 km).

Young foxes tend to live between territories, which can overlap an established adults home range but much less so their territory.

[Ziege]

Foxes will cache food that is excess to their current need. Most is buried between 20m to 400m away. They do take food back to the young too.

They certainly will kill in excess to their needs - surplus killing is typical of all canid species. Hence why dingoes/wild dogs will also surplus kill.

While you will get other foxes move into vacant territory, it generally occurs with younger foxes or if that area is better than where they are. A really good area is called an ecological sink.

Young foxes leave their natal areas in autumn so you will have more rapid fill of vacant territory then. Good time to shoot lots and still end up with more.
Mike

Interesting cos none of the foxes that move into the two creeks near home regularly are young... usually an old dog fox most times, rarely a vixen.

[bladeracer]

Actually research from GPS collared foxes show that most foxes have very stable territories. The exceptions are a foray or two to see whats outside their established home range and the odd one that travels a fair distance (20-30 km).

Young foxes tend to live between territories, which can overlap an established adults home range but much less so their territory.

The foxes here tend to run a loop, down one creek, through the quarries, then up another creek. Just had a look on Google Earth and it's about a 16km loop, although it generally follows the low ground around the valleys. They seem to come through every second day rather than daily, so maybe they do it in two sections. It's also possible I'm dealing with two, or more, different tribes that stick to their own sections of the loop. But they invariably travel northward up the western creek, and southward down the eastern creek so I've always thought of them as one tribe. As far as I can tell the dens are in the creek walls in dense bush where the creek is unreachable due to rampant blackberry. I've only hunted both sides of the middle section, the northern end is a junction of two main roads, the southern end is owned by the quarries. When we're calving we do get them coming up onto the hills chasing the detritus, and the lovely milky calf poo

[Ziege]

Yeha blade, all the palces I regularly shoot them, whether it be spotlighting, or on foot whistling, or pushing them trough on a fox drive, they all follow more or less the same patterns/directions regardless of wind or threat.

[Blr243]

Reading thru this I thought CREATURES OF HABIT ...there are some people who order the same dish every time they visit a Chinese restrraunt. Others are more adventurous... perhaps giving som thought towards human behaviour and patterns will help us understand the patterns of animals and how there can be a big variation I n. Our observations of their movements

[Blr243]

Reading thru this I thought CREATURES OF HABIT ...there are some people who order the same dish every time they visit a Chinese restrraunt. Others are more adventurous... perhaps giving som thought towards human behaviour and patterns will help us understand the patterns of animals and how there can be a big variation I n. Our observations of their movements

[Farmerpete]

To be honest most farmers let you hunt there in hopes of eradication although this is rare the weekend hunters generally upset the population enough to shift them to the neighbours paddock.

We don't care if the pigs/foxes/dogs are over the fence we just care when they're on our land.

Maybe get permission from the neighbours so you can chase them back.

[Oldbloke]

Actually research from GPS collared foxes show that most foxes have very stable territories. The exceptions are a foray or two to see whats outside their established home range and the odd one that travels a fair distance (20-30 km).

Young foxes tend to live between territories, which can overlap an established adults home range but much less so their territory.

That is what I would expect. Then if it happens that the area has become "vacant" due to the death of a neighbouring fox he/she would "move in" and take over if they can.

I would expect most species would do this. Even insects, they are simply filling a cap in their inhabitable/usable environment.

[Ziege]

Actually research from GPS collared foxes show that most foxes have very stable territories. The exceptions are a foray or two to see whats outside their established home range and the odd one that travels a fair distance (20-30 km).

Young foxes tend to live between territories, which can overlap an established adults home range but much less so their territory.

That is what I would expect. Then if it happens that the area has become "vacant" due to the death of a neighbouring fox he/she would "move in" and take over if they can.

I would expect most species would do this. Even insects, they are simply filling a cap in their inhabitable/usable environment.

yeah insects do this too and not just when there is an imbalance of predation either, one example is if your yard is near bush and you start experiencing Ticks, spraying them all out can create a vacuum and later you get a large rebound of ticks... hence the more noxious long lasting sprays or people using other barrier methods, its seen a lot in some areas here in WA.

[animalpest]

Foxes will not take over an area just because it is vacant. It needs to better fulfill their needs - food, water, shelter and an opportunity to mate. That is even if the area next door becomes vacant.

Remember their territory is only as big as it needs to be to satisfy that criteria above.

Foxes generally take a week or so to cover their entire home range.

[Ziege]

@Animalpest, yeah man, had some screeching harpies from the city down next town over a while back trying to petition against shooting foxes and cats.... they say that if you shoot one, another will just take its place... but like as you have said, if one occupies the now vacant location, it had to come from another...

I think they play too many games and think that the animals respawn after theyre shot like Call of Duty or something

[Oldbloke]

[quote="animalpest"]Foxes will not take over an area just because it is vacant. It needs to better fulfill their needs - food, water, shelter and an opportunity to mate. That is even if the area next door becomes vacant.

Remember their territory is only as big as it needs to be to satisfy that criteria above.

Foxes generally take a week or so to cover their entire home range.[/quote]

Agree. And I imagine there would be a lot of variables. But if there is a "vacuum" and they need it,I imagine they would take it.

[animalpest]

Generally it is young foxes that take over vacant territory.

Haha yeah, they must re-spawn.

Removing older foxes means less predation as young foxes are more likely not to survive, are less effective breeders and inefficient hunters. Young foxes travel more and are therefore more likely to be seen, shot or baited.

[Oldbloke]

Generally it is young foxes that take over vacant territory.

Haha yeah, they must re-spawn.

Removing older foxes means less predation as young foxes are more likely not to survive, are less effective breeders and inefficient hunters. Young foxes travel more and are therefore more likely to be seen, shot or baited.

Makes sense