Fox breeding. Species: Vulpes vulpes = Red fox Rutting fox

Briefly about the fox.

Ordinary or red fox- most common and most large view kind of fox. An individual plot occupied by a pair or a family of foxes should provide them not only with sufficient food, but also with places suitable for burrowing. Meanwhile, foxes usually use permanent shelters only during the period of raising cubs.

Like the wolf, the fox is a monogamous animal that breeds once a year. Rutting time and its effectiveness depend on the weather and fatness of the animals. There are years when up to 60% of females remain without offspring. The female is often courted by two or three males, bloody fights occur between them.

We also note that foxes are good parents. Males, along with females, take an active part in raising offspring, and also take care of their girlfriends even before the appearance of foxes. They improve burrows and even catch fleas from females.

In a litter, there are from 4 to 12 puppies, first covered with dark brown hair. Outwardly, they resemble wolf cubs, but differ in the white tip of the tail. They begin to see and hear at two weeks of age. In general, about six months pass from the time of the rut to the final exit of the fox cubs from the hole. At the same time, young animals that leave the parental den are usually located at a distance of 2 to 30 km from it.

Of the senses, the fox has the most developed sense of smell and hearing; vision is much less developed - therefore, for example, a fox can come very close to a motionless sitting or standing person from a windy side.

During the rut and just in a state of excitement, the fox emits a jerky loud bark. The male barks, almost like a dog, without howling, the female makes a triple “bark”, which ends with a short howl. IN wild nature foxes rarely live more than seven years, often life expectancy does not exceed three. In captivity, animals live up to 20-25 years.

Source: http://www.viptrophy.com/

Fox hunting.

Many of us hunt foxes. This is one of the most popular hunts. The methods of prey are literally inexhaustible in fantasy - from corralling on horseback and hunting with a golden eagle to luring to a mouse squeak and stalking at the bait. With flags, a fox is hunted in much the same way as a wolf, but it is much easier to get it this way, because it daily course much shorter than that of the gray counterpart. If hunters know fox dens, then hunting can be started right from the salary.

The most probable places of daytime foxes go around in a circle, adhering to clearings, sights, paths and roads, that is, the most open places, so as not to prematurely frighten off the beast. If it is known that there are badger or fox holes in the hunting area, they must be “cut out” from the salary or encircled with flags, otherwise during the rut the fox will go down and it will be impossible to get it without burrow dogs.

When setting the salary, it is especially necessary to carefully examine the old tracks and hare paths, using which the fox can get out of the salary before flagging. If, after the salary, the number of entrance tracks exceeds the number of output tracks, the animal is considered to be taxed. More difficult to resolve the issue equal number input and output tracks. In this case Special attention pay attention to the freshness of the traces. If the morning, the entrance track is fresh, the salary must be flagged.

To attract foxes, a bait is laid out - usually the carcass of a fallen domestic animal. It is best to place it in a high and always open place, but not far from the forest, bushes and other grounds favorable for daytime foxes. If the bait has tall single trees, magpies and crows fly and sit on them, helping the animals to find the bait. In addition, it has long been noticed that a fox goes to a bait pecked by birds more readily than to an untouched one. Having sated, the fox settles down for a day at a relatively short distance from the bait. For fox hunting, a two-kilometer set of flags is usually sufficient. In those places where they did not hunt with flags and the animals are not frightened, it is possible to make small salaries, up to 1 km long. The flags are hung so that their ends touch the surface of the snow. Hunting is best done with vicious circle, and two people are enough to participate in it: the shooter and the beater.

You need to drive the fox calmly, without screaming. Moved from the prone, she walks along the line of flags in search of a way out and, in the end, stumbles upon the shooter.

Hunting can be simplified with some experience and in places where the beast is not frightened. When laying down the beast, the cord with flags is not hung on the bushes, but placed directly on the surface of the snow. You can hunt with flags until the end of the hunting season. For a hunter, fox hunting with hounds is of great interest. A dog for this hunt needs to be frisky enough and, most importantly, viscous, capable of not leaving a trace, even if the beast has taken it far from the owner. They go hunting before dawn to catch the fox feeding. A fox picked up from its bed or caught on the move often goes in a straight line for a considerable distance, sometimes up to 5 km, leading the dogs along with it. As a rule, after some time, the fox returns to the area of its permanent habitat, which is more familiar to it, and here it continues to walk in small circles.

The size of the circle of the fox depends on the conditions of the area and the quality of the dogs. Frisky or, as they say, "flying" dogs force the fox to make large regular circles, and "foot" hounds allow the animal to walk for a long time in a small volume, in small irregular circles.

Hearing the approaching rut, the hunter must quickly stand on the supposed hole of the beast. Such a manhole can be a crossroads, the intersection of a road and a clearing or two clearings, narrow valleys. If the hunter "saw" the fox, but it is out of the shot, you should carefully move to the place where it just passed: the fox loves to follow its own path. The fox avoids open, clean places during the rut. It passes through glades in the narrowest places, using the cover of individual bushes and uneven terrain: ditches, depressions and even road ditches.

When choosing a hole, the hunter should leave as few marks as possible on the rut. It is necessary to stand quietly on the manhole and not make sudden movements, even raising the gun when the beast approaches should only be when it is already within the range of a sure shot.

Often, during such a hunt, the fox hides from the hounds in his hole, if the entrance to it was not previously clogged with hunters. In order to get a burrowed fox, some amateur hunters use burrowing dogs - dachshunds and terriers.

The duration of a fox hunt with a hound depends on the conditions of the year. It starts with the opening of the hunting season for fur animal, and finish when deep snow makes it difficult for the dog to work.

Hunting by stealth is a difficult, but interesting and very sporty way. Before snow falls, it is almost impossible to notice a mouse fox against the background of yellow-brown vegetation, so the hunt begins with the appearance of a white trail. The most convenient places for such hunting will be open lands with soft relief: meadows and fields interspersed with small copses, bush islands, ravines and lowlands overgrown with weeds, wide floodplains big rivers and so on..

You should go hunting at dawn, when the fox is still feeding. Carefully examining the area, the hunter moves around the land, trying to stay against the wind. Field binoculars and camouflage robes can be of great help here. When a feeding fox is found, the hunter must determine general direction its course and, depending on the conditions of the area, either hide the beast using natural shelters, or try to go ahead and wait for its approach.

When hunting a fox from an approach, some hunters use a decoy, with which they imitate the squeak of a mouse, or imitate its squeak, sucking in air, pressing the back of their hand to their lips. The fox catches the squeak of a mouse at a distance of up to 300 m. The success of this hunt depends entirely on the endurance and skill of the hunter. In some areas, with the help of decoy, they imitate the cry of a hare.

During the years of abundance of mouse-like rodents, foxes feeding in daylight are rare: they are quite content with night hunting.

At the end of winter, in February, when the foxes start rutting, hunting from the approach is the most prey. During this period, foxes often walk during the day, and are found not only in pairs, but also in groups of 3-5 individuals. Hunters call such groups "fox wedding". They usually consist of a female and several males chasing her. Noticing the foxes, the hunter tries to determine the female by their behavior and, having dispersed the animals, pursues her, driving her away for 1-1.5 km.

Mouse foxes are also hunted together, combining approach with surge. At the same time, one of the hunters tries to imperceptibly go forward along the course of the beast, and the other carefully directs it towards a friend.

Experienced hunters successfully catch a fox by trailing through fresh snow. By the nature of the trail, they determine the fox that has finished the hunt and is heading to the lair. In the forest, the fox lies near the trunk of a tree, on tussocks, stumps, or under the root inversion, and in open places among the fields - in ravines, in bushes and weeds. Well-fed foxes sleep very soundly and often let them in for a close shot. It is easier to approach them on soft snow in warm weather and on windy days.

They also shoot foxes, lying in wait for them at a specially laid out bait - carrion.

In nature, foxes can most often be heard during the rutting period, which in the middle latitudes occurs in February and March. Under favorable conditions, it is possible to listen regularly, every night, for two to three weeks, to listen to the voice of one, and sometimes several foxes at once. Foxes are especially vociferous on cold nights. The signal characteristic of this period in the life of foxes is a series of sounds consisting of four to eight barks. By ear, it is perceived as a fast, melodic "ko-ko-ko-ko-ko". Some naturalists believe that a series of three staccato barks, ending in a drawn-out monophonic howl, belongs to the female. The barking of males is more pure, jerky, without howling. However, it should be noted that specialists in the field of sound communication do not find a connection between the nature of vocalization and the sex of foxes. Judging by the sound behavior of other canids, in particular domestic dogs, this opinion, apparently, should be recognized as fair.

The rutting signal of foxes, often called the barking stanza in specialized literature, serves to establish contact between males and females located at a great distance. If a male comes into close contact with a female, he lets out a rhythmic grunt stanza. With strong excitement during the rut, the stanza of barking takes on a strictly defined form and consists of a number of individual sounds typical for each individual.

During the mating season, foxes often gather in groups and run in a row, forming the so-called fox weddings: usually a female is in front and several males are behind her. Fierce fights often break out between males, which are accompanied by threatening signals typical of the agonistic behavior of these animals - piercing cries, similar to the howl of a siren.

When agonistic behavior, foxes emit warning cries, which serve as a signal for restructuring the partner's behavior. Most often, this is a low-frequency, prolonged growl, which in some cases can be mixed with barks, squeals, yelps and snorts. An increase in the excitation of the animal in anxious situations that cause it to growl is the cause of its quickening of breathing and, at the same time, a break in the sounds it makes - intermittent barking occurs. But barking compared to yapping is still a longer sound. Yelping is perceived as a more sonorous sound. The spectra of these signals also differ significantly. Barking is a sound signal that accompanies the moment of attack, but it can also serve as a warning to other animals about danger, in the latter case, its duration increases.

The agonistic behavior of foxes is also associated with various other signals: squeals, trills, trembling or trembling sounds, whining and screams. Often in this situation, yelping is combined with elements of screeching, which indicate the subordinate nature of the relationship: the signal of subordinate individuals sounds louder than the yelping of the dominant animal. Sound signals are combined with the corresponding body movements: the subordinate animal wags its tail, presses its ears, stretches its lips.

The spectra of most of the sound reactions characteristic of the agonistic behavior of foxes are similar, having common feature- broadness. The differences relate mainly to the duration of the signals and the presence of certain high-frequency components in them. The appearance of the latter is apparently associated with an increase in the level of excitation of the animal in the event of a conflict. The squealing and whining of a subordinate individual at the climax of a fight has such a wide spectrum. The spectra of trills and trembling sounds are characterized by the presence of the same two well-defined maxima. But these sounds differ sharply in their duration: a trill is a longer sound. The shortest sounds in foxes are yapping. It is known that a sonorous yelping is emitted by a subordinate animal, and a deaf one - by a dominant individual. Depending on the social status, the frequency characteristics and whining of foxes change: in the dominant individual, the frequency of this sound is lower than in the subordinate.

Fights between foxes die out only at the end of the rut period, peace and silence reign in the forest. In the repertoire of sounds of these animals, the barking strophal remains only for a while. But now it serves to communicate within the couple. Often it sounds like a weakly dissected "coo-coo-coo-coo" and is different from the tone signal "ko-ko-ko-ko-ko" greater height. At the end of the rut, some pairs separate, and before whelping, individual males compete again for pregnant females. Only after this, the foxes finally break into pairs, and the male, together with the female, takes an active part in preparing the hole, and then in raising the young. A month after mating, the male begins to bring prey to the hole. At the same time, he grumbles and whimpers. A stanza of barking is still combined with these sounds, but then it gradually disappears. Increasingly, the inviting grunt of the male is heard at the time of delivery of food to the hole: a low, often repeated "uh-uh-uh". Having heard this sound, the female, busy with the cubs that have been born, leaves the hole.

Read the author's feature: Red Cheatand essays: Common fox: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

FOX BIOLOGY: Reproduction Yu.A. GERASIMOV(Zagotizdat, Moscow, 1950)

On South Soviet Union at the end of winter, usually in January and February, and in mid-latitudes in February and March, the foxes begin the mating season - the rut. At this time, you can often hear a kind of hoarse peeling. It's foxes barking.

If you listen well to the voices of several animals, you can notice the difference in them. Three jerky howls, ending in a drawn out monophonic howl, belong to the female. The barking of males is more frequent, jerky, does not end with a howl and is very reminiscent of the short-term barking of a small mongrel. Such flashing foxes characterize the beginning of the rut.

At large numbers foxes and under favorable conditions of their existence, you can regularly hear the barking of one, and sometimes several foxes at once, every night for 2-3 weeks. This indicates that the animals overwintered well and the rut passes in unison. In such a year, with a favorable spring, one should expect numerous fox broods with big amount healthy puppies in each.

During the mating season, foxes often gather in groups and run in a row, forming the so-called "fox weddings". Such a wedding is usually headed by a female, followed by several males. Fights break out between males, which sometimes take on a violent character. From the footprints left in the snow, one can imagine how furiously the animals gnawed, now standing one against the other on their hind legs, then grappling, how they rolled in a ball, leaving tufts of wool on the snow. If rivals meet in a hole, no less fierce struggle is tied up underground, usually ending in the flight of the weaker one.

Mating in foxes, as in dogs, is accompanied by binding, as a result of the formation of a bulb in the male - a thickening at the base of the genital organ from a rush of blood to the cavernous bodies. Male and female in a bound state can be up to half an hour. If at this time the foxes are suddenly frightened, they will scatter.

After mating, some pairs sometimes separate briefly. In such cases, before whelping, the males again compete with each other because of the pregnant females. After that, the foxes finally break into pairs, and the male, together with the female, actively participates in the preparation of the hole and in the upbringing of the young.

Foxes most often arrange pores in elevated, dry places with a deep location of the groundwater level, digging them in a wide variety of landscape conditions. Burrows are fairly evenly distributed among fields and arable lands, in forests and forest edges, among hay and pasture meadows.

In the steppe and desert zones with vast open spaces, foxes prefer the slopes of ravines, valleys of rivers and streams, overgrown with shrubs, where they usually dig holes or occupy free badgers.

In the spring, a pair of foxes sometimes clears several burrows on the territory of their hunting area. This can be easily seen from the freshly raked heaps of sand and the traces of animals left on them.

In damp and swampy areas with a limited number of suitable places for burrowing, fox broods are often placed in adjacent burrows located at a distance of 100-200 meters. There are even cases of two broods settling in one hole.

How often fox holes are found in various zones of the Soviet Union can be judged from the following data. In 1939, in the Spitsovsky district of the Stavropol Territory, an area of 40 square kilometers accounted for up to 50 holes, and in the Arzgirsky district, up to 100 holes for the same area. In the Ural-Emba desert in 1935, only 3 burrows were discovered on the same area.

According to our research, in the Brovarsky district of the Kiev region, in 1948/49, there were 8-9 holes per area of 40 square kilometers, and in the Moscow region (Losinoostrovskoe economy) in 1938 - 12 holes.

In the taiga regions of Eastern Siberia (in the upper reaches of the Ushmun, Borun, and Zund-Dzhila rivers and beyond the Yablonov Ridge to the valleys of the Gunda, Bulugunda, and Chubuktui rivers) in 1945/46, one fox hole covered several hundred square kilometers.

Thus, the number of holes in different areas is very different. This can serve as an indirect indicator of how suitable certain areas are for the life of a fox.

When building a burrow, foxes use small hillocks, slopes of ravines, crevices in rocks, embankments of ditches dug to drain swamps, and even trenches and hollows left after hostilities. Burrows are less common on the gentle slopes of swampy depressions.

The underground labyrinth of the hole, as a rule, is located in the most pliable layer of sand, sandy loam or light loam for digging, the depth of which can vary from 50 to 250 centimeters. The steepness of the passages, the structure of the underground labyrinth and the depth of the location of the nesting chamber - the lair depend on this.

In the case of subsoil layers coming to the surface (in ravines, trenches, ditches), foxes dig 1, less often 2 inlets directly in the slope of a ravine or ditches and make a short, 2-3 meters long corridor at a slight angle to the ground surface. Burrows of this type seem to serve as a temporary shelter, since animals visit them irregularly and puppies are not usually taken out in them.

More often, foxes dig more complex underground passages with 2-3 otnorks and with a nesting chamber - a lair located underground at a depth of more than a meter. The underground labyrinth of such holes consists of 2-3 corridors with a diameter of 25-30 centimeters and a total length of 6-10 meters, which serve as passages to the lair. In some cases, underground passages are complicated by blind (without access to the surface of the earth) 1-2 meter long burrows dug away from the nesting chamber or corridor. Usually, fox holes, contrary to the opinion of many hunters, are very simple in design and have 2-3 straight or slightly curved corridors - passages to the den, which are underground at a depth of 1-2 meters.

More difficult are old foxes or badger burrows occupied by foxes. In these cases, up to a dozen otnorks come to the surface of the earth, and the underground labyrinth is dug at a depth of 2-3 meters and may consist of several corridors and many blind otnorks with a total length of up to 30-40 meters.

In the depths of such pores there are no sharp temperature fluctuations. As it was established, when the air temperature on the earth's surface changed from -8 to +27°, the temperature in the den of the hole (at a depth of 120 centimeters underground) changed from -2 to +17°, and in the passages at a depth of 250 centimeters - from 0 to +14°.

It should be noted that and hot weather in residential fox holes at a depth of 1.5-2 meters and in the presence of an animal, the temperature did not rise above + 17 °, and in winter cold did not fall below 0 °.

It is also important to note that the concentration of water vapor in fox dens usually approaches saturated humidity even in arid steppe regions.

Sunlight never enters the nesting chamber. With a complex underground labyrinth, even scattered light enters the lair in the smallest amount.

Consequently, the old, deep underground burrows turn out to be not only a reliable refuge for fox cubs, but also a kind of habitat for them, where on a hot afternoon you can hide from the heat, and in rain and cold - from bad weather. In this regard, it becomes clear why foxes and their broods primarily occupy deep and complex burrows.

Foxes are very attached to their burrows. If they are not disturbed, then they breed puppies in the same places year after year.

Often, in the old vast burrows with numerous burrows, a family of foxes settles together with a badger. In winter, a fox wounded or pursued by a dog very often escapes into a hole where a badger sleeps.

Hunters know cases when a fox survived a badger from his hole. Some attribute this to the cunning tricks of the fox, others simply to its untidiness. However, in areas with a limited number of burrowing sites (for example, in northern Ukraine), we have observed the opposite picture: badgers and raccoon dogs survived foxes from their permanent burrows.

There are cases when completely helpless fox cubs are found in a hollow or under the snags of a fallen tree, in a crevice between stones or under a pile of hay. Such cases can be explained by the flooding of a hole chosen by an inexperienced young female, or by the relocation of a disturbed brood. Older females usually pup in previously prepared secure burrows.

Due to its prevalence, fox hunting has never been banned, except in some countries and in certain types due to their limitations. These animals are found almost everywhere: near human habitation, in plains and mountains, steppes and deserts, in forest-type lands, as well as in river valleys.

The food of the fox is so varied that this beast can remain hungry only in the harsh winter season, when the fish are under water, the birds are few in number, there are simply no insectivores, fish are under water, rodents are underground, and the “burial sites” are littered with snow.

The immediate habitat of the fox is an area with a diameter of 6 to 10 kilometers. This size varies depending on the food and the season of the year. Due to the limited burrowing, the individual sections overlap each other.

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mating season

The rut of foxes living in middle latitudes begins in February. Its timing can vary widely and depend on several parameters. For one female, 5 or even 6 males can run at once. Fighting in this case is inevitable. The strongest male always stays with the female. Such is the horse of nature.

The female attracts the necessary attention with her voice. During the mating season for many species of animals and birds, this is the most common and natural way. During the rut period, the marking reflex is extremely activated in foxes - this is marking the habitat with their own urine. This is due to relationships within species.

Mating takes place in the first decade of March. Pregnancy in female foxes lasts about 49 - 58 days. One female can bring up to 13 cubs at a time, but the average figure, which is recorded most often, is from 4 to 6 cubs.

Almost all foxes cub inside their prepared burrows. Outside their limits, this happens extremely rarely and is associated with some kind of emergency, for example, flooding. All foxes are born blind. They mature gradually over the course of two weeks.

Offspring - the process of education

For obvious reasons, during this period in middle lane fox hunting is strictly prohibited. Dead offspring - a small achievement. If at the beginning of the rut you can still turn a blind eye to the insatiable desire to hunt foxes, then in the first decade of March and right up to the warm July days it is better to forget about it. The offspring must be given life and fed, because foxes are one of the orderlies of the forest and any other area where they live.

An amazing discovery for many will be the fact that foxes communicate with each other. Several animals use one path at once. Hare trails - all foxes use them, because. this makes it easier to find food and saves a lot of energy.

From the hole, fox cubs begin to make their first sorties only after 20-25 days. The lactation period for foxes lasts 1.5 months. It is surprising that both parents raise the babies (the male does not leave the female after mating). The cubs try to start their independent life in August. Here, the breakdown of the brood is stated, especially if the main source of food (mouse-like rodents) in the vicinity is very small. Otherwise, the brood may be near the native norm until November or even December.

Peculiarities of burrowing and the need for species control

There are not so many places for burrowing in nature, because. they require both the proximity of a water source and a certain soil structure. If fox fishing is intensive, then their life expectancy is no more than 2 years, however, there are places where individuals live up to 7-8 years and this is a very respectable age.

In order to trace the sides of the ecology of foxes, animals are captured and marked. The greatest success in this was achieved by the hunters of the GDR, but here you always need to make small adjustments for the geographical area and some features of the animals. The results of this process make it possible to determine the age of animals, their level of fertility, and some other indicators necessary to predict the abundance of a given species.

reproduction

In the south of the Soviet Union, at the end of winter, usually in January and February, and in the middle latitudes in February and March, the mating season begins in foxes - the rut. At this time, you can often hear a kind of hoarse peeling. It's foxes barking.

With a large number of foxes and under favorable conditions for their existence, one can regularly hear the barking of one, and sometimes several foxes at once, every night for 2-3 weeks. This indicates that the animals overwintered well and the rut passes in unison. In such a year, with a favorable spring, one should expect numerous fox broods with a large number of healthy puppies in each.

In the steppe and desert zones with vast open spaces, foxes prefer the slopes of ravines, valleys of rivers and streams, overgrown with shrubs, where they usually dig holes or occupy free badgers.

Thus, the number of holes in different areas is very different. This can serve as an indirect indicator of how suitable certain areas are for the life of a fox.

More often, foxes dig more complex underground passages with 2-3 burrows and with a nesting chamber - a den located underground at a depth of more than a meter. The underground labyrinth of such holes consists of 2-3 corridors with a diameter of 25-30 centimeters and a total length of 6-10 meters, which serve as passages to the lair. In some cases, underground passages are complicated by blind (without access to the surface of the earth) 1-2 meter long burrows dug away from the nesting chamber or corridor. Usually, fox holes, contrary to the opinion of many hunters, are very simple in design and have 2-3 straight or slightly curved corridors - passages to the den, which are underground at a depth of 1-2 meters.

There are no sharp temperature fluctuations in the depth of such pores. As it was established, when the air temperature on the earth's surface changed from -8 to +27°, the temperature in the den of the hole (at a depth of 120 centimeters underground) changed from -2 to +17°, and in the passages at a depth of 250 centimeters - from 0 to +14°.

It should be noted that even in hot weather in residential fox holes at a depth of 1.5-2 meters and in the presence of an animal, the temperature did not rise above + 17 °, and in winter cold did not fall below 0 °.

It is also important to note that the concentration of water vapor in fox dens usually approaches saturated humidity even in arid steppe regions.

Sunlight never enters the nesting chamber. With a complex underground labyrinth, even scattered light enters the lair in the smallest amount.

Foxes are very attached to their burrows. If they are not disturbed, then they breed puppies in the same places year after year.

Pregnancy in a fox lasts 51-53 days. In the southern regions of the Soviet Union, the whelping period falls on the second half of March, in the middle latitudes (Kiev-Moscow) - in April, and in the more northern regions (north of Leningrad) - at the end of April-first half of May. In all these zones, the timing of whelping can deviate within 10-15 days, depending on meteorological conditions, the abundance or lack of food during the rut, diseases, etc.

Feed largely determines the number of born puppies. The average number of puppies in a litter does not exceed 5-6, sometimes it reaches 9 and, as an exception, up to 12.

Fox cubs are born pubescent with fluffy fur, they weigh 100-150 grams. The primary coat of dark brown color evenly covers the entire body and tail of the puppy. The end of the tail of fox cubs is always white, which makes it possible to distinguish them from wolf cubs, as well as from puppies of a raccoon dog and arctic fox.

The first 15-19 days the cubs are blind. Their ear openings are covered with a membrane. Throughout this period, the puppies are completely helpless and completely dependent on the mother, who warms them and feeds them with milk. Constantly licking the crotch of the puppies, the female causes them to excrete feces and urine into her tongue, thereby maintaining cleanliness in the lair.

At the same time, the paternal instinct awakens in the male, and he regularly brings prey to the hole.

A month after birth, normally developed fox cubs weigh up to 1 kilogram. At this time, they are already constantly shown on the surface of the earth and in good weather they spend whole days at the hole, without departing from it further than 20-30 meters.

It is interesting to observe such a brood, sitting in a storehouse built on the nearest tree, or simply behind a bush 20-30 meters from the hole (downwind). Usually, as soon as the sun begins to warm, all the foxes, one by one, run out of the hole in a crowd and start a fuss. For hours they play, chase each other, somersault, forming a common ball.

Sometimes a low-flying crow or a bird fluttering close by makes the most cautious fox cub growl in alarm, which makes everyone else alert (Fig. 2). At this tense moment, it is enough to dive into the hole for at least one puppy, as after him, crowding each other, all the rest rush. Half an hour or an hour will pass and the pointed ears of the most curious daredevil will again appear from the hole. Looking around, the puppy will quietly get out to a point in front of the hole. Everyone else will follow him. And the game starts again.

Played and tired fox cubs love to lie and take a nap on the sand under the rays of the morning sun. On a hot afternoon, they usually climb into the chill of an underground lair, and then peace and tranquility reign at the hole.

And in the evening twilight, at night or early in the morning, old foxes bring to their cubs the most diverse prey: voles, gerbils, ground squirrels, and sometimes even hare, chicken, etc. We had to observe how one fox managed to bring the eggs of a mallard duck to the puppies intact. Often the fox delivers the victim to the hole while still alive. This develops hunting skills in fox cubs.

Arriving at the hole, the fox calls the cubs with a peculiar snort, often reminiscent of the repeated syllable "uh-uh". At such a call, all the foxes immediately jump out of the hole. Usually, the prey falls into the teeth of the fox cub that jumped out first. Further fate prey is decided by the strongest and hungriest puppy.

A fierce fight often breaks out between the cubs because of the ground squirrel, water rat, etc. brought by their mother. Pulling out prey from each other, the puppies become furious. Pouncing on each other with a chirping, they gnaw, scratch with their front paws or, grappled, roll in a ball on the ground, trying to push the opponent back from the desired prey. When the victim is torn to pieces and eaten, the cubs begin to suck their mother. But the fox at this time already avoids feeding them with milk, and usually, having made several jumps to the side, hides from the puppies in the bushes, leaving the brood to itself.

If at this time a person or a dog approaches the hole, the fox will not be slow to return back and in such cases often shows great selflessness in saving the brood. With a sharp flashing, reminiscent of the abruptly and hoarsely pronounced syllable "uhau", the fox tries to attract the attention of a person, without falling into his eyes at the same time. The fox sometimes runs very close to the dog and, dodging its teeth, rushes away, distracting the dog from the hole.

The instinct of motherhood is also manifested in foxes that do not have puppies. So, the cubs, put in a cage next to the line of a fox, awakened in her the instinct of motherhood. Such a fox systematically starved, and she dragged the newly killed jackdaws that were brought to her in her teeth for days on end, continuously purring and trying in every possible way to call the cubs to her from the neighboring cage. When a fox cub was brought to the bars of her cage, the fox willingly gave him the meat she had stored up.

Fox cubs start catching small animals from the very first days after the first exit from the hole. Frolicking at the hole, they do not miss the opportunity to trample or crush a running lizard with their paws, to grab a declining May beetle or dung beetle on the fly, to catch a swift-footed ground beetle. So they gradually develop hunting techniques.

At the age of two or three months (for mid-latitudes in June-July), the cubs become more independent. At this time, they begin to leave their burrow for several hundred meters to hunt for fillies, beetles, lizards and mouse-like rodents. At night, they return to their lair, as the old foxes still continue to come to the hole and share their prey with the cubs.

Near the living burrow, fox cubs destroy all small animals, including frogs. In this regard, young animals are gradually expanding their hunting area.

By August, the weight of foxes reaches 2.5-3 kilograms. Their hairline by this time becomes more lush, similar to the fur of their parents. Such cubs become so independent that they can feed themselves. At this time, they move away from the hole for a distance of more than a kilometer and do not always return, remaining in the field for the whole day and even for the night.

Sometimes a lone fox cub temporarily settles in the nearest neighboring hole. Such mature fox cubs, frightened near their homes, often do not hide in a hole, but run into bushes or reed beds.

Older foxes still continue to stick to the breeding area. They often betray their presence by barking at a person who has appeared at the hole in which the fox hid.

In September and October, when the change of milk teeth ends in fox cubs, young animals already grow so much that appearance almost indistinguishable from adults. From this time until the end of winter (until the rut period), young foxes lead a solitary nomadic lifestyle, adhering to the territory of their permanent hunting area. Of the 27 cubs ringed by us in the summer of 1949 in the Brovarsky district of the Kyiv region, after 6 months, three foxes were killed in the same area at a distance of 12-22 kilometers from the place of release.

In winter, foxes do not have a permanent shelter - they do not have holes and burrow only in exceptional cases, fleeing danger or hiding in wet, inclement weather.

The period of raising young for a fox does not always go smoothly. In many industrial and agricultural regions of the central regions of the European part of the Soviet Union, foxes dig holes not only in remote places, but also on arable land, among crops, in meadows or forest edges, often in the immediate vicinity of villages. As a result locals can easily detect fox broods. Often, children, having found a living hole, put sticks into it, throw smoking firebrands, or simply clog the otnorki with earth. Such a hole, as a rule, becomes uninhabited on the same day. In areas where the fox is heavily pursued by a person, it is enough that he visits the hole once, especially in the presence of old foxes, for the animals to leave their refuge.

The fox carries helpless puppies in its teeth, and transfers more independent puppies to a secluded place 2-3 kilometers away. If this happens in May or June, then still immature foxes during such a transition lag behind their mother, get lost and become victims of dogs, wolves and large feathered predators.

In areas where there are few suitable places for burrowing, such an alarmed brood is forced to wander for quite a long time without shelter, as a result of which it may all die. In Ukraine, in May, we had to observe many cases when, from litters of 5-7 puppies, after they moved to other holes, 2-3 fox cubs remained alive.

Daily lifestyle of a fox

Most foxes are crepuscular and nocturnal. In summer and autumn, the fox goes hunting at sunset, when work in the field stops, and the shepherds bring their flocks to the villages. All night and in the morning of the next day, she freely mouses over the harvested fields, visits old stacks, stacks of straw and threshing floor, tops of ravines, edges of swamps and forest edges. If there is a lot of food, then the fox, quickly sated, lies down at night, and at the dawn of the morning resumes its hunt before sunrise, after which it leaves for the day.

However, there are also foxes who are not averse to hunting ground squirrels and hamsters in the late morning or even in the afternoon. In summer, animals with broods often linger on daytime hunting. Sometimes they come to villages to catch a gaping chicken from a careless mistress. In winter or in a hungry year, when it is difficult to obtain food, foxes usually mouse all day.

As a rule, foxes visit carrion at cattle burial grounds and bait only in the evening and at night.

Places of the day for foxes

On a quiet, clear winter day, the fox chooses a place for a day's rest somewhere on a hill among sagebrush thickets or in the stubble in the fields. She lays down in the snow or on some kind of elevation - on a tussock, stump, a pile of brushwood, a stack of firewood or a mop. In mountainous areas, the places where the fox hauls often turn out to be a small balcony on a cliff or on a steep slope of a ravine. Even with frost below 15-20 ° and strong wind the fox prefers to lie down somewhere not in a swamp among hummocks, under the protection of reeds, in young forest plantings or in weeds, than to hide in a hole. In winter, it can sometimes be caught in a hole only during a snowstorm with heavy snowfall.

The fox is most often sent to the lair without any special precautions. She does not do clever doubles, sweeps and loops, like a hare. Only sometimes, having made a throw from the track, lies down so as to see his mark. Curled up, she usually lies on her side, picking up her front and hind legs to her stomach, and covering them with a magnificent tail. Young and fearless animals, especially if they are full, sleep quite soundly, and they can often be approached from the leeward side for a sure shot shot. Animals sleep especially soundly in the thaw after frost.

Older animals sleep more sensitively and often raise their heads, listening and looking around. It is usually impossible to approach such "unsettled" foxes without special precautions.

Along the black trail, it often happens that a fox, seeing an approaching hunter, clings to the ground, trying to become invisible.

If a person walks straight towards a fox, she jumps up while he is still at a considerable distance and runs away. Sometimes, having let a person close enough, she quietly gets up and, disguised as bushes, tree trunks and uneven terrain, tries to leave unnoticed.

Fox nutrition and places of fattening

In spring and summer, during the period of raising puppies, the old fox spends most of the time in search of prey. At this time, she attacks any victim she can, ranging from beetles, lizards, voles and ending with a hare or even a young roe deer. The fox is no less dangerous for many birds, as it does not miss the opportunity to profit from their eggs and chicks. Often, adult molting birds - ducks, black grouse and capercaillie - also fall into the teeth of the beast. A case is known when a fox even killed a swan. In a hungry year, animals willingly eat carrion.

Thus, the composition of the animal food of the fox is very diverse. It changes from year to year, from season to season due to changes in the abundance and availability of one or another type of food. And yet it is undoubted that the bulk of the fox's food consists of various small rodents. Every hunter has probably seen more than once in the fields with what enthusiasm the fox catches mice, or, as they say, "mouse". Many cases are known when, during the night plowing, foxes followed the tractor plow and looked for mice in the torn land. Having once gone with a tractor driver "at night", we managed to kill such a mouse fox. The remains of 16 voles were found in her stomach. Numerous studies of the contents of the stomachs and feces of foxes collected in various zones of the Soviet Union have established that mouse-like rodents occupy a significant place in the diet of foxes everywhere. For example, in foxes caught in the forest-tundra of the Kola Peninsula, mouse-like rodents were found in the stomachs of all individuals, in the Moscow region - in 79% of cases, in the floodplain regions of the Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - in 76%, in the mountainous part of Crimea - in 61% and in the territory Caucasian State Reserve - in 84% of cases.

Each hunter, having carefully examined the hard, pointed at the ends, almost black feces of the animal, he met on a fox trail or at a hole, can make sure that small rodents are the main food of the fox. In the feces, one can easily distinguish undigested short hairs and claws of small rodents.

In addition to mouse-like rodents, foxes catch a large number of ground squirrels and hamsters. Significant specific gravity and in some years and seasons, foxes have birds, carrion, berries and fruits.

AND summer time the feces of foxes, and especially fox cubs, often consist of nothing but chitinous remains of May beetles, dung beetles, locusts, grasshoppers, and other insects. It should be noted that in comparison with all these foods, hares and game birds occupy a very small place in the diet of foxes (5-10%). In winter, the proportion of these feeds sometimes increases. This is largely due to the absence of mouse-like rodents or the difficulty of getting them from under deep hard snow, as well as the fact that the animal catches at this time wounded animals that were not found by hunters. In some cases, the number of hares eaten increases as a result of a case among them from invasive (helminthic) and infectious (contagious) diseases.

With a lack of food (especially mouse-like rodents), the fox sometimes begins to systematically choke poultry. At the same time, she often becomes so impudent that she bursts into the poultry yard during the day and drags off the chicken.

In autumn and winter, young foxes, old or already mature enough by this time, roam in the evening twilight and at night in search of prey in their hunting area. This territory, usually well explored by the fox during its daily wanderings, does not exceed an area of 10-20 kilometers in diameter.

It is interesting to walk along fresh powder, along fox tracks, stretching like a stitch with the most intricate figures, through fields, meadows, forest edges, swamps, ravines and stream valleys. Sometimes such a trail stretches for 30-40 kilometers, and if you do not cut off the loops, you will not always have time to reach the lying fox in a short winter day.

You will see a lot of interesting and instructive things on the fox path. The fox has several gaits. The most common is a jogging, medium-sized trot. With this move, the fox makes its usual journey in search of prey. In the mouse fox, the trot is often replaced by a step, which indicates the tense state of the animal. Such steps sometimes end with several jumps and a hole in the snow, irrigated with a few drops of the blood of the captured animal. In deep snow or icy conditions, the fox does not always manage to get to the bottom of a vole or mouse. In such cases, she has to switch to hunting for white squirrels and examine glades, forest edges, where black grouse and hazel grouse usually spend the night in holes made in the snow.

The fox often visits the threshing floor, where she sometimes manages to crawl up to the gray partridges or to the hare. At night, the beast often comes close to human habitation and picks up various garbage.

Foxes never gorge themselves like wolves do. Usually 10-20 mice or one hamster are enough to feed a medium-sized animal. If the fox is full and unable to finish its prey, having found a secluded place, it tears off a hole with its front paws and, putting the remnants of its meal in it, buries them with its nose and carefully tamps down the ground or snow with it. The fox usually returns to his pantries the next day. Therefore, with such a find, the hunter will not miss the opportunity to put two traps in this place.

In the second half of winter, when there is less food and it is more difficult to get it, the fox regularly visits carrion, although this predator usually prefers live prey.

A well-fed fox often engages in catching mice simply to satisfy his hunting passion. In such cases, after catching a vole, it plays with it like a cat until it strangles it, then leaves it uneaten. Having found fox fun in the footsteps of this kind, we can safely assume that the animal is full and will soon go to bed.

Fox Enemies

Adult foxes have few enemies: wolves and large eagles. There are also cases of attacks on the fox by lynx and wolverine. Fox cubs have a lot more enemies. They are attacked by an owl, a goshawk, a raven and a pesky crow. Often fox cubs become victims of stray dogs. Many of them die in their burrows as a result of smoking. Many fox cubs disappear in early spring from hunger and cold during the transition of disturbed broods to another place. Often foxes die by eating poisoned chemicals locusts and mouse-like rodents.

sense organs

When hunting a fox, it should be borne in mind that her hearing is most strongly developed, and then her sense of smell. Vision is less perfect. Calmly standing man a fox does not distinguish at a distance of 10 steps. Once we had to observe a brood of foxes near a hole, sitting on a tree 4 meters above the ground. Half an hour after our arrival, an old fox came to the hole with a water rat in his mouth. Having given the prey to the puppies, she suddenly caught the smell of our tracks. Lowering its head, the beast walked up and down the tracks and sniffed at them. Sometimes he stopped under the very tree and, raising his head up, sniffed the bark on the tree for a long time, but, finding nothing, went to the puppies. In the morning, warm air currents go up. Therefore, apparently, the fox could not smell us. This example suggests that the beast trusts its nose more than its eyes.

It is characteristic that the fox looks down at the level of its eyes. In the vision of the fox there is another feature - the underdevelopment of the sense of distance. Some attribute this to the myopia of the beast. However, this is not quite true. A fox often notices a person moving or suddenly appearing at a distance of more than 500 meters and, despite this, immediately rushes to run with such haste, as if he were 50 meters away from him. Only after hiding from sight or losing sight and not hearing his pursuer, the beast calms down.

It is impossible not to mention the highly developed observation and visual memory of the fox. On her constant paths, she notices the appearance of the most insignificant objects or changes in the tracks. This makes the animal alert and often forces him to bypass the suspicious place. This is the main reason that foxes often bypass poorly camouflaged traps, although they are well processed and devoid of any smell.

Fox habits in captivity

Many foxes taken from a hole in early age(for example, suckers), with constant communication with people, they are well tamed.

The cubs especially get used to the person who feeds them, constantly picks them up and caresses them.

With artificial feeding, foxes are fed cow's milk, mashed potatoes, various cereals cooked in milk or meat broth, all kinds of sweet berries and fruits, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, as well as insects, such as May beetles. To avoid the appearance of rickets, it is necessary to add 10-20 grams of meat and bone meal to the feed of the fox cub, 10 grams each. raw eggs And fish oil. Meat, especially freshly killed birds, fox cubs always eat with great greed. A handmade fox cub does not lose its hunting passion in captivity. Released, he pounces on poultry and with great dexterity can strangle a chicken and even a goose in an instant.

The tame fox treats dogs with complete trust. When a large shepherd dog appears at the enclosure, it runs out to meet it and, wagging its tails, crouching to the ground or clinging to the cage bars, expresses the most benevolent feeling. With young and playful dogs, the fox lives very friendly. Planted together in one cage, they often play all day long, and when they get tired, they go to bed in the same den or in a hole.

A well-tamed fox will remain attached to its owner for life. She recognizes her nickname, the voice of a person she knows well.

There are cases when such foxes ran away to freedom and after a day or two returned or ran out of the bushes at the call of the owner and approached him without fear, allowing him to take them in hand.

When the owner enters the cage of a tamed fox, she rushes to his feet, caresses and rubs against his dress, crouches to the ground, wags her tail and, pressing her ears, squeals joyfully. Playing with a man, the fox makes false movements to the right, to the left, and suddenly bounces off in an unforeseen direction. Caught by the tail or collar, she falls on her back, somersaults and, deftly dodging, with lightning speed, but painlessly bites the finger or hand of the owner.

Foxes tamed from youth breed in captivity and feed their foxes well, in contrast to wild foxes, who worry too much in cages and drag their pups in their teeth to death.