Supply and demand

Patrick Hook takes a look at how the cull of one predator leads to the growth of another

- Patrick Hook

Those of us who live where there’s been a badger cull may well have noticed a large increase in the fox population since it ended. Countless farmers have commented something or other on the matter, and I suspect that to many it looks as though we, the local shooters, haven’t been doing our job properly. That really isn’t the case though, as evidenced by several recent scientific studies on the subject. They all agree that wherever the badgers have been culled, foxes subsequently prospered.

Due to regional variations, there are no hard and fast rules as to just how many more foxes there will be. These include such factors as the availability of food, the weather and local pest control. A rough estimation suggests that their numbers can more or less double, as shown by biologists at the Central Science Laboratory in York. Some researchers claim that the removal of badgers increases the fox population by an average of one extra fox per square kilometre, but others say as many as two.

Since the increase in vulpine populations has been observed and recorded in so many places, one has to accept it as fact. This then raises two basic questions.