No, I haven't seen one either, but I do know of one that got a visit from Brer Fox, and apparently it was a real nasty mess after he'd been through it.

Cousin of mine, smallholding (inc. Rabbits and Chickens) near Freshwater, Isle of Wight. Cost him a fortune.

Of course, the Fox is not indigenous to the Island, so fox cubs were imported there some years ago to give the Medina based hunt something to do. If the Hunt were truly concerned about damage to peoples property, pets and livelihoods, they wouldn't have bred the fox cubs in the first place would they? But once that red mist of blood-lust covers the eyes....
So, please, no more about "we only do it to keep Foxes down" or "Foxes are a pest which need to be controlled". The actions of the hunting brigade (importing Foxes where there are none) gives the lie to those statements doesn't it?

Yes and when lovely cuddly mister fox leaves he leave dozens and sometime hundreds dead. There are many breeds that should have never been allowed into the country in the first place, the damage they do is horrific. Most people only see the the little old grey squirrel as a sweet little creature that does no harm. In truth he does millions of pounds worth of damage each year. Cull the lot I say. Thankfully we eradicated the Coypu, another import many years ago, but we still have plenty more to go at. Here are just a very few. Mink, Wallabies, Ruddy ducks, Night Herons, Sika Deer, the Edible dormouse, Gerbils, Muntjacs, Polecat Ferrets, Pheasant, Budgerigars, Zander, Flatworms, Signal crayfish and on and on and on. It is people like me that go out and try and keep these things down so they do not completely overrun our native species, for that is what they would do if we did not.

Have to agree about the grey squirrel - red squirrels are much nicer chaps.

Where do we have wild wallabies?

Any good budgie hunting round here?

No-one said he was "lovely, cuddly," I'm just curious as to why the Hunt imported him to somewhere that he wasn't. If the Fox is a pest, and that's the reason for hunting him, then why breed cubs and release them to do more damage and harm?

Simple question.

You absolutely sure about that?

Polecats

The oldest polecat fossils occur in Germany, Britain and France, and date back to the Middle Pleistocene era.

I think you should read my post correctly DSB I said the "polecat ferret".



Amelie I have already said I agree with you, it should never happen. I also said I did not like hounds tearing Mr fox to pieces but that I still think the fox can be hunted from a horse.

Lots of them in the Bath area, Kent and Cambridgeshire also quite few.

Unless you're some sort of veganist then you've not evolved, you just get others to do the 'hunter/gatherer' thing for you instead...



Are you sure there were never foxes on IOW? Is it some sort of Galapagos outpost of the British Isles with it's very own endemic species - which didn't include vulpes? Perhaps it was hunted to extinction in previous centuries and THEN imported to keep the hunts from a few centuries of boredom.....? Are they still 'bred as cubs and released'?

If they were imported I don't imagine it was a recent thing and more probably took place in an era when 'ecololgy', 'bio-diversity', 'habitat' or 'sustainability' were not part of our language in relatively common usage like they are these days.

Just like 'we' took rabbits and rats around the world as our ancestors conquered the globe and destroyed large tracts of Australia and other paradises...

Law of Unintended Consequences comes to mind

...and not forgetting the Essex Lion and the Dartmoor Panther

....and the parakeet

One particular article I would love to see eradicated is the domestic cat. Filthy animals.
They **** on freshly dug flower beds , piss all over the place and kill untold wildlife.
The only good cat is a dead cat.
And the owners general view is out of sight, out of mind.

I once helped to win a round of a top of the town quiz knowing what a Glis was/is. The edible Dormouse or Glis Glis is a right pain to the people living in the Chiltern area. They invade roof spaces and eat their way through plastic pipes and wiring at an alarming rate. I would like to try one deep fried in a nice tempura batter though

Indeedy. Because of the currents in the Solent little can swim across and survive. There are no Grey Squirrels there either. (They never made it across). Hence a large population of Red ones. (unless the Foxes get them of course)

A 3 mile stretch of sea (which may have been far less in previous centuries) has forever thwarted an animal as cunning as a fox yet animals have supposedly crossed vast oceans to populate Pacific Islands and suchlike? How odd........

I did read it. You said "Polecat Ferrets" capitalising BOTH words. Thus two different things. What you meant to call them was "Polecat-ferrets" one capitalisation and one hypen. One species.

Less time strangling fish with your bare hands and more time on education perhaps?

Well this probably isn't the place to ask.

Do foxes climb trees as well as squirrels?

No, they stand on each others shoulders wearing a large trench coat and a big hat, and wait at the bottom.



Don't shoot the messenger. They are also absent from the Scilly Isles, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and all the Scottish islands except Skye and Harris.

It is illegal to release animals into the wild. Even if you catch a squirrel in a cage trap, you are obliged to destroy it humanely, not release it.

And talking of the law of Unintended Consequences , the badger is a prime example.

"oooh... 'ark at 'er..."

Careful or I'll take you to the vet and get you declawed (where they can also declaw Polecats AND Ferrets)

No sense waiting at the bottom, when the prey has moved across the canopy well out of harms way!