Caught unawares

Snares are vital for fox control during this vulnerable time for ground-nesting birds — but they must be well designed and thoughtfully set

- MIKE SWAN

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris… and the crops are growing too, making glimpses of foxes fewer and further between. But the need for control is not going away; indeed, now is the time when ground-nesting birds such as pheasants, partridges, grouse, skylarks, curlew, lapwings and corn buntings are at their most vulnerable.

If you cannot see to shoot, what do you do? The obvious answer is to trap foxes in one way or another. This is fine, but the fox’s reputation for being sly and wary is not without foundation. They are among the most suspicious animals imaginable, so tempting them into a trap is very hard indeed.

At the GWCT we have hours of video footage of foxes circling around even the simplest objects, such as a triangle made by laying down three fence posts with something interesting inside. They will come back to this sort of thing night after night but never pluck up the courage to step over.

To trap such a cautious beast you really do need to catch it unawares, and this is where a simple wire noose comes in. Unlike other traps, snares do not rely on attracting the fox in some way; they simply intercept an animal going about its normal business, closing around its neck before it realises. This means, in turn, that foxes do not become snare-shy in the way that they are trap-shy. If caught in a snare they are blissfully unaware of why and if a fox escapes it can still be caught in another. This was brought home to me 25 years ago when I caught a vixen with a radio collar.