Not too much of a surprise really -- we have a 100-acre woods just a little ways from our house, and those woods are connected to about 150 miles of a narrow woody park stretching along the banks of the Potomac River going all the way up to West Virginia. Since there is no hunting (too many houses), these suburban deer get full-sized and pretty old (seven or eight), and the very largest almost never move except at night.
I have, on occasion, had as many as 8 deer in my backyard at a single time, which may not seem a big thing unless you consider that I live just one stop light from Georgetown. This is not "the country" -- it is closer to the city than the suburbs.
Below are a few pictures of my yard fox, whom I feed the occasional table scraps to (rice going bad, old dog food, bread going stale, etc.) They seem to be in fine fettle. They are not fed regularly -- setting out a little food once a week or so is more than enough to keep them returning to see if they might get lucky.
One thing I have learned from these yard fox is that simply feeding them is a cure for mange. If a fox has enough food, it can usually marshall its own reserves to fight back a small dose of this always-present mite. If a fox is red-lining from from lack of food, however, parasites find a larger toe-hold, and they can swarm and quickly take over. Consistent food, it seems, is a simple form of mange medicine.
.
The biggest bucks tend to hang out in towns. They didn't get big by being stupid. They've survived years of orange-clad nimrods gunning for them.
ReplyDeleteI always see the biggest buck deer in towns. I saw trio of monsters in the city of Morgantown, WV, that nearly caused me to wreck. I was driving down a street which borders some woods and pasture, when I saw a huge rack appearing just to my left. When I looked left for a better look, I saw a twelve-point (at least) and several large ten points. I then started to drive of the street a bit, nearly missing a large pothole that would have torn my car to bits.
I don't know if you've seen this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa1GhdUqrnQ
But it's really good, although it does have some anti-hunter propaganda in it.
They look wonderful. On this property we've had a bumper crop of turkeys this year...I mean HUGE numbers. I think our fox are likely having a finger-lickin' good summer. One of my helpers saw a red fox Saturday morning passing through our pasture, under the gate and into the woods without giving her, or the horses, so much as a passing glance. She said he looked very healthy, so I didn't worry about the daytime sighting.
ReplyDeleteSeahorse
Retrieverman, that video was really interesting. I watched the whole thing, and though the endings were predictable and sad, the footage was great. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteSeahorse
Yes, that's a great little video series. I featured it on this blog a couple of years ago. It IS sad that nothing in nature has a happy death. Of course, that's generally true for humans too. Even when we die in hospital, there is a lot of misery before hand!
ReplyDeleteP.