Hunting for a redhead is beautiful, spectacular, one of its graceful gaits on a white sheet of snow is worth something! ..
In the first ten days of November, not having much time, I decided to walk around the immediate vicinity of the village in search of hares. The snowball only teased, puffed up, and the light frost of the puddle turned with ice. The wind that had blown the day before had died down.
My path ran along the dense, overgrown with willow and weeds banks of the small river Olkhovka. Considering that in such conditions the shooting is carried out "short-range", the first cartridge in the barrel was "short-range". Zaitsev did not see and decided to finally check the edge of the field, and only then return home. Coming out to a clean edge, I walked a little along it along a barely noticeable path and stepped on a puddle: there was a crack of ice, and a "gossip" jumped out of a bush in front and immediately jumped over it. I was not ready to shoot right away, everything suddenly turned out, and when I jumped aside to see the fox, it was already far away, and the shutter was not distorted to change the cartridge. At first he was upset by his inattention and sluggishness, and then he reassured himself - “Why do I need it?”.
When I started hunting (50s of the last century), a few hares and a couple of foxes, handed over to the procurement office, provided, in addition to money, sufficient ammunition. Later, already living in Moscow and being a member of the Moscow Society of Hunters, I regularly handed over the skins of various animals, including squirrels and moles, to procurement offices. Each group of hunters had plans for the delivery of furs. And a beautiful fox among lovers of hats or collars was estimated at the amount of the monthly salary of an average-skilled worker.
Today, two foxes killed with nephews were sold on an ad for an amount that allowed them to purchase only a box of cartridges (25 pieces).
So, why get a fox? There are several reasons. The first is the excitement of hunting: searching, hiding, and, finally, a successful shot. The second is her skin in the form of her own hat, or some market value, although this reason, as has been said, plays a small role lately. The third is the fight against it as a predator and a carrier of various diseases (rabies, lichen). During the hunt, we didn’t have to meet rabid foxes, but we caught lichen twice. We managed to bury one with a mangy tail (there was a black trope), and the other, already in winter, was filled up with deadwood.
As a predator, the fox represents a lot of trouble for game birds. This beast is quite strong (although not a wolf), endowed with well-developed sense organs (smell, hearing, sight), foxes kill primarily bird species nesting on the ground, and not only representatives of a wild tribe. Last year, for a sick brother, I bought fresh eggs from a grandmother I knew, and once again I came to her, I was refused, because in two nights a fox dragged almost all of her laying hens (the door to the hen house was not closed at night). To my remark: “Is it not a ferret?” she replied that the polecat was throwing its prey in the chicken coop, and then all the chickens were carried away, and there were eyewitnesses.
Since the timing of fox hunting during the year covers several seasons (usually from mid-October to the end of February), the methods of hunting during these periods are different.
In October - November, you can hunt alone along the black trope from the approach, but this is a thankless task, because. at this time, she lays down for a day, usually in dense thickets, and the noise created by the hunter raises her out of sight. The example given at the beginning of the article is not a rule, but a rare exception. In late autumn, I managed several times to catch foxes in the morning dawns, when they went to the forest to lay. Moreover, I did not prepare for such hunts in advance, but it turned out by chance. Twice I was in a mowed meadow with aftermath, and once in a field with stubble.
The schemes of these hunts were approximately the same for me. Seeing a fox walking towards the hunter on the field, it is worth hiding behind a tree and watching her actions. She usually does not go straight to the forest, but “hunts” along the way: she sniffs out something, bounces, her tail is sometimes “pipe up”. In the barrel of my “five” gun, the shutter cannot be distorted - it will hear.
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I carefully send a “one” to the MTs21-12 store: I rarely have more than three rounds in the store - there is room. I observe the movement of the gossip and, if necessary, carefully shift to the left or right, hiding behind trees and bushes. Here the task is not to step on dry land and guess where it “pulls” in order to be in the place where it should enter the forest. If the distance is lethal, I cover it with a “five” and immediately send a “one”, from which it no longer rises. According to this scenario, it happened to be harvested twice, and once it came so close from the stubble that there was enough shot No. 5.
If there are several people in the brigade, then you can hunt in corrals along the black trail. This hunt is carried out on a "maybe" in places where foxes and hares can lie down for a day. You can’t do any preliminary pruning here, so only knowledge of the area and the habits of the “red cheats” help. In this case, it is convenient to drive streams, beams, small copses overgrown with bushes, placing numbers along the banks, on the headlands of the forest and ditches overgrown with bushes emerging from it.
Hunters on numbers do not particularly need to hide, it is enough to stand behind a small bush or next to a tree, most importantly, do not move. Clothing must be gray tones or camouflage. When the fox comes to the right distance, a quick jump and - a shot. If the animal has temporarily disappeared behind some obstacle, then the gun is smoothly in the shoulder and we are waiting for the appearance of the animal in the intended place.
Hunting for a fox with a hound happened to us along the way when hunting for a hare. Moreover, we did not often get it on the black trope from under the dog. When our fox hunter Pirate managed to pick it up, it went out of my ear through the fields, long waits, then ringing melodies of a hunting horn, sometimes even shots, and finally, the dog returned. But after that, some hares were of little interest to him, and for us the hunt for them was spoiled. But in winter, in the snow, it was more often possible to catch chanterelles from under the Pirate, since you can quickly move on skis to “strong” places where the fox began to circle, and it’s easier to see it in the bushes and thickets in the snow. But all the same, after shooting the fox, the dog's passion for hunting faded that day.
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Actually, with the advent of the white trail, fox hunting becomes more interesting. More possibilities appear. First, it is trapping. The fox mainly “hunts” in the dark (although there are exceptions), and goes to shelters for the day: forests, copses, ravines, coastal thickets of various reservoirs. Therefore, such areas of the terrain are “cut off” in the morning in order to search for entrance traces, without approaching close to places of a possible day.
When a trail leading to shelters is found, one remains on the input trail, and the rest cut off the area to make sure that there is no output trail, after which they occupy numbers: forest capes, ditches, lowlands. The beater follows the trail, coughing and yelling or whistling softly. In calm weather, it is not necessary to make a lot of noise in small tracts of forest, but in a snowstorm and wind you can make some noise. Numbers must stand still, using covers, in camouflage suits.
If the white coat has long floors, then they must be tucked into the pants so that they do not shake with the wind, be sure to check if the clothes have gone astray when walking, as a gun is inserted. Here, shooting can be at extreme distances, so the gun should be with a good fight with large shot numbers (1 ÷ 00), and it’s easier to get a wounded animal.
Alone in the snowy season, you can effectively hunt the morning and evening dawns from ambush, in places where foxes enter the daytime haulout and go out in the evenings “to hunt”. To do this, it is first necessary to conduct reconnaissance of their routes, as well as where they prefer to mouse more often in the fields. It is desirable to take a position with a good view before sunset, for example, to dig into a snowdrift at the edge of a ditch or at some kind of hillock - and even here a camouflage suit is needed. Of course, on such a hunt, clothes and shoes should be warm, comfortable, and an extra sweater and trousers can be brought in a backpack and changed on the spot. You need to be patient.
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You will have to sit for two or three hours, or even more. Somehow, in early January, my friend and I were sitting about a kilometer from one another. I took a fox immediately after sunset when it left the forest along a ditch, and a partner a fox about nine o'clock in the evening in an open field at the intersection of two reclamation ditches. Although I was cold, I had no right to get up, as the fox hunted in the field, clearly visible on the white snow with the moon high.
In the mornings, the conditions of the sit-in are the same (at the transitions to the place of the day's rest). You should sit down even in the dark, preferably on a moonlit night (at the end of the full moon), taking into account the direction of the wind. On a moonless night, it is desirable to have a luminous front sight or rear sight. If it passes by too far, do not touch it, because at night it is difficult to get wounded animals. She will come to you next time.
And finally, a very interesting hunt for foxes during their rut. In this case, you need to sleep well at night, because during the day you will have to walk a lot, since the longitude of the day at the latitude of Moscow during this period is about nine to ten hours.
Here you can hunt alone, more freedom and improvisation. Having run over during the night, foxes often lie down during the day to rest in an open field: on hillocks, shocks, haystacks, or even just out of the blue. During this hunt, clothing should be light and comfortable, a good camouflage suit, preferably binoculars, can be partially “dressed” in white and a gun.
It is necessary to look for foxes in open fields, away from villages, periodically carefully examining distant and near "horizons" through binoculars, not to miss the slightest suspicious point. If something is not clear, you need to climb the nearest hillock, move to the side to look from a different angle.
When a lying fox is found, it is necessary to go around in a large arc so that it is on the windward side, and start approaching. Depending on the snow condition, the skis can be left and advanced on foot. As you approach, you need to be careful, bend into three deaths in order to become smaller in stature.
Foxes sometimes wake up, raise their heads, even turn around, and lie down again. If the fox raised its head, do not panic, the main thing is to remain motionless. And still hunting on a bait. I managed to prepare and successfully use the bait once.
Finding that the fox often visits the area of the field near the forest, where the spools of hay are collected in haystacks, I scattered food remains and bones in several places, and I firmly tied several sizars to the nearest bush at the base.
The next night no one appeared, and a week later, having come to the ambush, he already saw scattered feathers of pigeons from a distance. Not approaching the bait, so as not to inherit, I cleared the “armchair” prepared last week in hay from the snow.
After a difficult winter road, I felt tired, so I sat down more comfortably, looked around the surroundings again and, not hoping for the arrival of the “kuma”, believing that the fox had “privatized” all the Sisars earlier, did not particularly struggle with the “enchantment of Hymen”. Still a weak sleep was interrupted by a rustle, and I saw a large fox bustling about near a bush with sizars.
The night had not yet come, and there was a firefly, by the way, so when the “feathered hunter” clung to the tied and frozen dove with his teeth, his efforts were interrupted by a shot.
Fox- one of the most popular heroines of children's fairy tales. But the Fox, as a fabulous image, is endowed with features characteristic of these animals in reality. The fox is beautiful: a magnificent tail, which is a little less than half the length of the body, a red coat and a roguish narrow-nosed muzzle with beautiful brown eyes. Besides A fox slim, graceful, weighs 6-10 kilograms.
What does a fox look like
fox they also call it red, and this is actually true, only her belly is white, gray or slightly brownish, and her chest is light. The back and sides of the Fox are colored differently in different parts: from bright red to gray.
In the northern forests, Foxes are fiery red and more, in the forest-steppe - yellowish-gray and less. Sivodushki, krestovki, silver fox - these are ordinary foxes with deviations from the usual color. Black-brown fur is the most beautiful: guard hairs with white upper parts give the fur a silvery tint.
Such Foxes have been bred many years ago on fur farms, black-brown Foxes are very rare in nature.
summer fox fur hard and short, in it she looks lean, big-headed and even long-legged, he suits Lisa less than winter. And by autumn, winter fur grows - beautiful, thick. Shedding Fox once a year - in the spring.
Fox habits
The fox is a good hunter. In addition to being observant and quick-witted, she has an excellent visual memory, a good sense of smell and sharp hearing. The mouse squeaks a little, and fox hears it is a hundred meters away, a vole rustles on dry grass under a half-meter layer of snow - and hears it. It climbs well on steeps, swims, and on the shore it is exceptionally maneuverable. Her ingenuity on the hunt or when escaping from her pursuers is admirable.
Fox will be able to climb a tree if it is slightly inclined or branches low from the ground. The fox is very active. She knows her hunting area to the smallest detail, systematically inspects it. patterned chains in winter fox footprints bizarrely cross fields, copses, ravines, getting lost on roads and paths and intertwining around stacks of straw, stacks of dry soybean stalks, piles of deadwood and in other places where mice and voles live.
There was, and still is, an opinion that the fox food - hares. Of course, the Fox loves the hare, but she can not catch up with the hare often - where can she keep up with such a runner.
However, Foxes do well without hare. It is estimated that there are more than 300 different animals in the diet of the Fox, from insects to large birds.
And yet the main fox food - rodents. They occupy 80-85% of her diet. To get enough, the Fox needs to catch and eat at least two dozen mice and voles a day. And where fox feeding- and the area of its feeding area is on average 10 kilometers in diameter - there are much fewer rodents than where there are no foxes.
After the rains, the fox collects earthworms in abundance. in shallow water Fox successfully catches fish, crayfish, takes out shells. It happens that half-eaten prey remains, and then the Fox hides it, taking it to different places. Then she will certainly find these reserves and eat them.
It is characteristic that, being a typical predator, the Fox is happy to eating berries, apples, some vegetables.
Fox hunts, as a rule, at dusk and at night, during the day it can be seen only in a low-feeding period, most often in winter, and even in summer, when foxes grow.
Norami the fox uses mainly during the rearing of offspring, and the rest of the time it prefers to rest in the open: under the roots of a twisted tree, in a ravine, on a haystack.
fox breeding
Mating season for foxes starts from the end of January - in February, and in the north and in March, although even before that you can often see a male and a female in a pair. At wedding time, in March, several males court one female, and fights between them are a common occurrence. During the rut, the Foxes are very excited, often yelping and howling, especially loners who have not yet found a mate for themselves.
Males and females can be distinguished by their voices. Fox female makes a triple bark and ends it with a short howl, and the male barks more and more like a dog. Having retired, the couples play a lot, they even arrange peculiar dances: the Fox rises on its hind legs and walks in this position with small steps. From this dance got its name foxtrot(The word "foxtrot" is English and means "fox step").
Male foxes are good family men. They not only take an active part in raising young animals, but also touchingly take care of their girlfriends long before they give them lovely foxes: they carry food, improve burrows.
fox cubs in a litter there are from 4 to 12, but most often 5-6. They appear after 51-53 days of pregnancy, usually at the end of April or in the first half of May. fox cubs born weak and helpless, deaf and blind, weighing only 100-150 grams, but grow quite quickly. In less than a month, they already see, hear, weigh about 1 kilogram, come out of the hole, and soon begin to play and frolic. From that time on, Fox's parents bring them half-dead game so that the cubs acquire hunting skills.
As soon as a person even accidentally stumbles upon the Fox hole, as on the very next night The foxes will be transferred to another place, in a spare hole, there are usually several of them at the Foxes on the site. If Foxes are in danger, adults discover amazing presence of mind. Even when a person breaks a hole with a shovel, they try to the last to save their children - to bring them out through one of the otnorks.
fox cunning
Sometimes you can see in fox behavior actions resembling episodes from fairy tales. For example, to the black grouses, gathered on the current in an open meadow, the Fox approaches surprisingly cunningly: she pretends that they are not at all interested in her, does not even look in their direction; sometimes it will lie down, take a nap, and the birds lose their vigilance, go about their business - very much Lisa is a good actress.
In the meantime, Patrnkeevna will advance a meter or two towards them. The Fox does not spare time for the game: sometimes such a performance lasts an hour or two. Then a few lightning-fast jumps - and the hunt was victoriously completed.
Not many animals are called by name and patronymic. But the Fox is often called that way. Moreover, her middle name is unusual - Patrikeevna. About 600 years ago, there lived a prince named Patrikey Narimuntovich, famous for his resourcefulness and cunning. Since then, the name Patrickey has become equivalent to the word cunning. And since the Fox has long been considered by the people as a very cunning beast, then as the heiress of the famous prince, she received Patrikeevna's patronymic.
Being a typical predator, the Fox eats berries, apples, and some vegetables with pleasure.
Little foxes they fight well with pests such as May beetles.
Hunt Articles
By nature, along with other differences, people are divided into assiduous and restless. For example, I always belonged to the latter. Accordingly, I like hunting more and suit the nature of the running ones. I understand perfectly well that it is often much more efficient to arrange a hunt for hunting this or that game, slowly and patiently waiting for the beast, as they say, to come to the catcher on its own, but for myself I choose those hunts in which experience and skills are combined with active actions.
One of these hunts is the fox hunt. Despite the fact that I have a hound and a burrow and, of course, I hunt with them, I am also interested in stalking hunting. Interesting confrontation with a cunning beast in its environment, the need to know the terrain just as well as the beast, all its bumps and pits, know the habits of the beast, be able to predict the logic of its actions. To deceive a vigilant fox, mouse in the field, or on a prone, getting close to her at a distance of a shot, is a real art, which is within the power of a hunter who has gained a lot of experience. But besides an individual approach to each specific case, in this hunt, as in others, there are also “common places”, the knowledge of which will facilitate and speed up the hunter's acquisition of experience.
Hunting by stealth involves not only the use of terrain, but also disguise. The color of the suit should match the most common background of the area where you intend to hunt. The suit material should be thin and soft (not rustling), and it should be functionally comfortable and spacious enough to be worn over a small backpack. It will not be superfluous to disguise your weapon, for example, by bandaging it with a cloth tape that matches the color of your camouflage suit. Do not neglect gloves and face masking of the appropriate color, otherwise it will look like a dark spot against the background of snow. Shoes should be sufficiently soft and spacious and, of course, suitable for the season, like the rest of the clothing. It is not known how the next hunt will turn out, you may have to lie motionless for a long time in the cold wind in the middle of the field, waiting for the fox walking in your direction.
I would compare stealth hunting with the “hunting” of a wandering sniper, when you not only need to track down the target and get close to it at a sure shot distance, but also often make the only accurate shot. Accordingly, you will need well-aimed weapons and binoculars. The fox is strong on the wound, and even after being wounded from a carbine, it is often able to leave.
The best time for such a hunt is the second half of winter, when the foxes begin to prepare for the rut. But you can also hunt stealthily at the beginning of winter, along the black swamp, when it is necessary to reduce the number of foxes. However, if we talk about the value of fur, then in the middle lane fox hunting, according to experienced hunters, is better to start after the twentieth of November. By this time, she will not only shed completely, but will also acquire an undercoat.
It is better to start such a hunt, as with hounds, from the very dawn. By this time, you need to be already in the grounds and decide on a route that would not only run through the places where it is most likely to meet a fox, but also move along which you could most covertly. For me, the most convenient terrain for such a hunt is fields cut by small ravines and copses. When choosing the direction of movement, you must always take into account the direction of the wind. This is not the case when he needs a passing one.
Each time, before you go to the next open space, carefully examine all suspicious places through binoculars. Sometimes a resting fox curled up in a ring on arable land powdered with snow is not so easy to see. If in doubt, wait a bit, and she herself will raise her head to once again make sure that she is safe. And if you spot a fox sleeping, mouse or on the go, figure out how best to get close to it or where to meet it. Sometimes it is easy to do this using natural relief, and sometimes it is very difficult. One mistake of yours - and the beast is gone. So hurry up, but be careful.
If the animal is on the move, then, taking into account the direction of its movement, you can try to intercept the fox, having reached the supposed intersection with it by a ravine or forest. It has been noticed that, while feeding, the fox usually moves against the wind, and often returns in the morning to the place of daytime and in the wind. This is only to your advantage, as well as knowledge of the area. The fox, being on the move, usually does not bypass the holes along the way and will definitely look into them. As well as places where there is a high probability of profiting from something. If you guess and manage to covertly reach such a place, the beast will come to you, as if to an agreed meeting.
You can try to fool a mouse fox with a decoy that imitates the squeak of a mouse or the cry of a wounded hare. But, if you are not confident in your ability to use it, I do not advise you to experiment. Falsehood will be recognized, and the beast is wary. But even if you correctly imitated the squeak of a mouse, this does not mean that the fox will rush headlong towards you. Perhaps the redhead will not show in any way that she heard you, but be sure - she accurately spotted the coordinates of the next "beef steak in a gray skin" and, even moving sideways, she will still turn to visit him.
Having looked out for a sleeping fox in the field, you can try to approach her for a shot, hiding behind some kind of tubercle or eversion of arable land. If this is not possible, try to calculate how long it takes for her to raise her head to look around. Using the periods between these actions, I managed to get close to the fox in the field for a sure shot, even with a smoothbore gun. And when the fox, once again raising its head, was surprised to find in its immediate vicinity a “snowball” that had come from nowhere, it was too late to run away.
It is necessary to clearly enough imagine how best to approach the fox. In one case, you need to quickly make a decision and, using the folds of the terrain and natural shelters, move to the intended point as quickly as possible, in the other - making a long detour, long and patiently, meter by meter, get to the cherished goal. It is much easier to do this in the snow when the snow drowns out the sounds, but don't take it too literally. Any wild animal is very sensitive to the slightest movement and third-party sounds. Therefore, having crept up to the distance of the shot, do not relax, but estimate the distance and prepare for the shot with all caution. Now, when the animal is in the crosshairs of the sight, it depends on your accuracy whether the hunt will end with a desired trophy or a crippled and lost wounded animal. After firing a shot, immediately prepare to repeat it if necessary. It happened that “purely” beaten foxes jumped up and tried to run away. And it happened that “light” wounded animals rolled out from the field right under their feet into the near opening of the ravine or the forest peak, where the shooter was hiding.
In the morning hours, it is most likely to look out for a fox on the move until nine o'clock. Then, if the weather is not "burrowing", you can look out for resting foxes in the fields overgrown with bushes, and in field ravines near the holes. In years when there is little mice (the main fox food), they sometimes mouse or trail hares during the day. During fox weddings, redheads become less vigilant, and it is easier to steal them. If there are too many of them in your hunting area, then, having knocked out the female from the wedding, you may have the opportunity to shoot at any of the “suitors”.
In the evening and at night, looking out for a fox, it is better to move forward a little deeper into the edge of the forest or through ravines. Every time you go to the next observation point, carefully inspect the area in front of you, remaining as hidden as possible. With the experience gained bit by bit, the ability to “feel the beast”, to anticipate its actions, will come to you, which means that luck will come.
And yet, if you are going to hunt with rifled weapons, be especially careful, consider the flight range and the ricochet of the shell bullet. No matter how expensive the trophy is, human life is immeasurably more expensive.
Valery Lyushkov
Hunting for foxes from ambush it is much less common among hunters than other methods of hunting this animal. Maybe many do not like the passive nature of this hunt or do not have the patience to sit for hours in the cold on a long winter night, being in the unknown when the beast will come to you and whether it will come out at all. I love this hunt for its unique beauty and originality.
Imagine, dear reader, a clear, frosty night somewhere among the expanses of the Vyatka region. The full moon shines above your head so brightly that you can see every twig of willow bushes growing near the pit, mouse drops scurrying along the straw, blue lines of fox tracks running around the field.
Above the roofs of the huts of a nearby village rise straight columns of smoke. They don't sleep there yet. From time to time you can hear the barking of dogs, the sounds of an accordion and fragments of a cheerful ditty. But gradually everything calms down, and only from the side of the dark wall of the pine forest is heard the booming clicking of trees. Sometimes it seems that somewhere there, at the edge of the field, a dark object is moving. You peer into the silvery distance, your eyes are covered with tears from the cold and tension. No, this is not an animal, but, probably, a panicle of horse sorrel or wormwood is slightly swaying under the gusts of an oncoming breeze.
Here is a blue speck quickly rolling across the field - a little squirrel. The rabbit itself is not visible. It is his shadow that follows him. The animal ran into the willow bushes, the crunch of gnawed branches is heard. An owl appeared from somewhere. She wanted to sit next to a stack, but noticing you, she turned sharply to the side, dived down and quickly disappeared into the dusk of the night.
And the frost, meanwhile, gets under the sheepskin coat deeper and deeper. The cold begins to tingle the ends of the toes of stiff feet, shod in rustic woolen socks, cloth footcloths and felt boots. You cringe more and more, and the thought of the advantages of a warm hut with a hot samovar flashes in your head more and more often ...
Turning towards the forest, you suddenly startle with unexpected joy - along the edge of the forest, now shrinking into a ball, then stretching, a dark spot moves. Fox! Lowering her tail almost to the snow, bending her head, she approaches the omet with a leisurely jog - and suddenly stops. "Did you smell it?" - an anxious thought flickers, but, thank god, after a few moments that seem like an eternity, the beast goes forward again ... pipe.
Isn't it nice, reader, after sitting motionless for 5-6 hours in the cold and then warmed up by brisk walking and joy, to enter the hut, where, despite the late hour, they are still waiting for you, where boiled potatoes are steaming on the table, sliced slices of white bacon lie and a hill of cucumbers gleams with brine... In central European Russia, the best time for hunting from ambush comes after the winter solstice, when clear, frosty days and nights set for a long time. The sit-in is arranged in places often visited by foxes: at the straw trap, where they come in search of mice, at cattle burial grounds and domestic dumps, at specially laid out carrion. In the Moscow region, foxes like to go to poultry farms, where you can profit from the corpse of a discarded chicken. It should be noted that the animals are not afraid of either the constant noise of fans working in the cases, or electric lighting. In the steppe and forest-steppe regions, it is good to arrange sittings for foxes on the banks of frozen rivers, in the place where the floodplain forest growing along the banks ends and open space begins.
I remember how in one of the winters I successfully hunted foxes on the Chegem River (Kabardino-Balkaria), six kilometers from the village of Chegem. In the floodplain forests of this river, consisting of impenetrable thickets of hazel, svidina, blackthorn, sea buckthorn and barberry, there were many foxes. With the onset of dusk, the animals left their prickly slums and went to feed in the steppe, following the mostly dry river bed. I chose a sitting place on an islet dividing the river into two channels, in the roots of a black-sorrel, washed by summer water. From here there was a good view in both directions, and almost every animal, even following along the main shore, fell under the shot. Rarely in the evening did I return to the forest cordon where I lived without trophies, and in two weeks of continuous hunting I had thoroughly reduced the number of local foxes.
I want to add that on this hunt I never arrange a special cover, I only adapt the natural shelter. At the top of the haystack, tearing hay or straw, I make a hole of such depth that, lowering my legs into it, it would be comfortable to sit. On top of the concrete fence near the poultry farm, I arrange a small platform of boards with a back (usually at the junction of the plates). At a cattle burial ground or a domestic dump, I sit down on some elevated place: an earthen mound overgrown with weeds, or just a pile of garbage.
The bait is laid out in the places where the foxes cross in such a way that there is a convenient place nearby for setting up a sit-in. It is best to put the carrion somewhere near the uprooted stumps left after clearing the arable land or carrying out reclamation work.
The fox does not have good eyesight, but has a subtle sense of smell and hearing. The ambush is therefore always arranged in such a way that the wind blows from the intended direction of the approach of the foxes to the hunter, that is, under the wind or at least half the wind. You need to sit still so as not to give yourself away with noise during careless movement.
Interestingly, in most cases, each animal has its own clear schedule for visiting certain feeding areas. For example, several foxes can go to a bait or a cattle cemetery, but each of them comes at a strictly defined time: one - with the onset of evening twilight, the other - in the middle of the night, the third - in the morning. Therefore, having obtained a fox at the very beginning of the hunt, one should not rush to go home, because after a while another animal may come.
It is almost impossible to sit out the whole long winter night in a sitting room, especially in severe frost - you will freeze, no matter how warmly you are dressed. Willy-nilly, you have to resort to the "shift" method: on the first night you watch from the moment dusk until midnight and, if the beast has not left during this time, on the second night - from midnight to dawn.
The output of foxes is better in clear, frosty weather. During a heavy snowfall, a blizzard, the animals often or do not go out to feed at all, or come out after the blizzard stops.
You should always approach the hunting place in such a way that your trail does not cross the path that the animal goes to the place where the ambush is arranged. So, if you are guarding on a straw fence standing in a corner of a field surrounded by forest, you need to approach from the side of the field, its middle. It is better to approach a bait or a cattle burial ground by a road, and from it, in a straight direction, to the place of the sit-in. These precautions can be omitted only in those areas where animals get used to human tracks (in household dumps, near poultry farms and farms).
Equip cartridges for foxes with shot No. 1 or No. 0. You never need to rush to shoot. You need to shoot from a distance of 20-30 steps and at a time when the beast will put you on the side.
On a clear winter night, on a full moon, it is so light that both the aiming bar and the bronze front sight of the gun are clearly visible even against the background of the dark silhouette of the beast, and therefore shooting is easy. On a cloudy night, and even with low clouds or fog, it is more difficult to make a sure shot, since you have to aim at the gun barrels. Therefore, when shooting at night, it is very important that the gun is applied. It is impossible to give any clear recommendations for shooting at night. Experience is gained only by practice. However, even experienced hunters often make mistakes.
In conclusion, I want to dwell on the equipment of the hunter. It is necessary to dress warmly for hunting from an ambush: in underwear with fleece (preferably woolen), a woolen sweater (preferably from rustic wool), wadded trousers, a sheepskin coat, felt boots or fur boots with woolen socks and cloth footcloths, fur mittens, a hat with earflaps ( preferably fur). It is not bad to pry a fur vest under a short fur coat. It is clear that in such attire it is difficult to get to the ambush, especially if the hunting place is located five or six kilometers from the house: even with slow movement, you will certainly sweat. To prevent this from happening, you need to go hunting in advance, move slowly, with frequent stops. If the hunter does not have enough time, a sheepskin coat, wadded trousers can be put in a backpack and put on after arriving at the place.
When hunting from an ambush, one must remember that luck always accompanies the most seasoned and patient hunters.
In the central and northwestern regions of the European part of Russia, it is best to start trapping in the second half of winter. At this time, frequent thaws stop, after which a snow crust forms, which interferes with the installation and masking of the trap, and deep snow cover forces the foxes to use the old passages (manholes).
The main food of foxes is mouse-like rodents, in search of which these predators visit fields, meadows, hay meadows along forest streams and rivers, abandoned villages, and lie down in the forest for a day. Therefore, it is best to lay a fishing path for setting traps in manholes along an impassable forest road passing through the forest half a kilometer from the field or other places visited by foxes.
A hole is a trail that the animal has passed more than once. Install. it is not difficult even for an insufficiently experienced hunter. On a permanent crossing, the fossa of the track is "trampled", hard, without snow scree. Often there are claw prints in one direction or the other. On the trail around the fresh footprint, even after a decent snowfall, the contours of the old hole are visible, the footprint is clearer than the animal would have passed here for the first time.
In an area where many skiers walk through the forest and the animal is not afraid of ski tracks, you can set a trap without leaving your skis, under the fourth or fifth (in the fourth or fifth) hole of the track. In places where people are rarely in the forest in winter, the fox is very wary of the human trail, including the ski track. She usually turns to the side a few steps from the track, goes along it and crosses in the place where it is less noticeable (for example, in a clearing where the track is covered with snow). In such cases, before reaching the fox’s nest or crossing it, you need to get off your skis and, using some kind of cover (bushes, overgrowth of fir trees, tree trunks), go to the path in the place where the animal cannot yet see the ski track, and set a trap here. The fact is that the fox, following the path, is sensitive to the slightest changes in the environment. Hidden approaches to the manhole make it much easier for the hunter to mask his trail, which is important when there is a shortage of time on a short winter day. It is necessary to approach the installation site of the trap carefully, trying not to break off the knot, not to knock down the kitchen hanging on the branches from the bushes and trees, rubbish. This requirement must be strictly observed when installing a trap anywhere.
Good results are obtained by setting traps at fox crossings through narrow forest rivers, especially if the banks are steep and steep, and the river does not freeze for a long time. To cross such reservoirs, the animal often uses the trunks of trees that have fallen from shore to shore, sediments accumulated somewhere in the bend of deadwood. The trap is placed before the animal enters the log or in the place of dismounting from it. It is especially convenient to set a trap if the river has not yet frozen over: when approaching the installation site of the samolov on the water, masking your trail is not required. Convenient crossing over the river is often used by several animals. You can even set traps here along the black trail.
I remember how, while fishing for minks in the Kostroma region, my attention was attracted by the strong smell of fox urine. Having carefully examined the shore, I noticed a fox crossing: using a hummock sticking out in the middle of the river, the beast jumped from bank to bank. The red gossip apparently used this hole all the time, since the sedge on the tussock was well trampled down. A large fox fell into a trap the very next day, and although it was dirty and wet, its skin did not at all lose its fur-like qualities.
Effective setting of traps in the forest belts, consisting of small Christmas trees, along the railroad tracks. In the Moscow region, foxes regularly walk along the railroads in search of food leftovers thrown out of the cars. The animal usually walks along its path in the middle of the forest belt, turns off it, seeing or smelling something edible near the railway, and then returns to the path to the forest plantation again. To set a trap in a forest plantation, it is better not from the side of the railway track, but from the field: it is easier to mask your tracks, which are covered with snow in the evening.
Scavenger foxes can be caught at household dumps, cattle burial grounds. Traps are placed on the approaches of animals to these places.
Often, to catch foxes, hunters use a bait, which is laid out in places often visited by animals. Skinned carcasses of muskrats, corpses of fallen sheep, piglets, calves, as well as the entrails of moose and wild boars gutted at the shooting site are used as bait. The bait is laid on the ground with such a calculation; so that for the beast there were no more than two or three convenient approaches to it. When fishing for muskrats in winter, I usually put skinned carcasses of animals in a bag, having previously ripped open their belly, dragged this load through the snow for several kilometers in the places of fox crossings, dumped the contents somewhere in dense thickets of reeds, and set traps on the pass and other possible approaches (two three).
Elk giblets can be hung on a tree trunk, one and a half meters from the ground. The trap is placed directly under the carcass, 15-20 cm from the base of the trunk. Foxes quickly find laid out carrion, but take it not immediately. More than once, the beast will pass from the bait in five to ten steps, as if checking whether a free treat is in place. Since the trap at the bait can stand for a long time, care must be taken that it is not covered with heavy snow. In reeds, for example, a shelter is made in the form of a hut from the stems broken from the sides of the passage, and in spruce undergrowth - from bent and wired crowns of nearby Christmas trees. In areas densely populated by humans, where foxes not only are not afraid of the ski track, but even use it in deep snow for crossings, you can put traps under the ski track. The inconvenience of such fishing lies only in the fact that skiers can follow your trail and accidentally alert the trap, or some dog that has grown fat on city grubs will fall into the trap. I guarantee that in both cases you will not see the trap again ...
In February, during the rut, foxes like to visit and urinate at objects sticking out from under the snow in a clearing, clearing or in a field: block and boundary posts, bumps, logs. Setting traps at such places in the midst of the rut is always successful. Once I caught a fox at the urinary point of a harrow thrown into the field. Moreover, he set the trap directly from the ski track passing by.
In the presence of snow cover, traps for foxes are placed “on the trail” and “under the trail”. In the first case, a recess corresponding to the size of the cocked trap is made at the site of the hole in the track with a wooden spatula, a trap is placed in the recess and covered with snow. The surface is leveled "flush" with the surrounding surface of the snow, and in place of the old hole with a dried fox's foot (exactly above the center of the trap's plate), a deepening of the artificial track is arranged. Artificial fossa Should resemble the real track as closely as possible both in depth and in shape. Like a real trace, it even reproduces "drag" and "drag". Sometimes the snow that has fallen when disguised as a plate freezes, and the trap does not work. To prevent this from happening, I either cover the edges of the plate with lumps (plates) of snow, or cover the plate of the trap with a sheet of thin white paper, and then I cover the samolov with snow.
When setting the trap "under the track" on the side of the hole of the track and under it, a recess (cave) is made in the size of an alert trap, into which the trap is set in such a way that the plate is exactly under the track. The "ceiling" under the base of the track must be of minimum thickness. This is achieved by carefully cutting the snow with a knife blade. If the "ceiling" is so thin that the plate is translucent, a sheet of thin white paper is placed on it. The cave is laid with a layer of snow, the hole is filled in, the surface is leveled "flush" with the surrounding snow surface. Carefully masked not only the place where the trap is set, but also the traces of the hunter. The first track from the trap is covered with snow from the back, and so on. The surface is levelled. Larger lumps of snow are broken with a thin twig, small ones with a brush; she finally leveled the surface. Disguise can be considered good if, moving away from the set trap for a few steps, you cannot distinguish this place from the surrounding.
Foxes are usually caught with plate traps No. 2 and No. 3. Some hunters use a smaller trap (No. 1), on which either a second spring is fixed, or with the help of metal washers worn on the ends of the shoulders, they increase the strength of the connection of the trap arcs with the base racks. Large traps (No. 5 and No. 7) are good for catching foxes, which practically exclude cases of paw grinding and animals leaving. However, these traps are not transportable.
Store-bought traps require prior inspection and processing. First of all, they are cleaned of factory grease. To do this, all parts of the trap are first wiped with rags, tow, washed with gasoline, and then boiled in water mixed with hay, wormwood, needles, bark and tree branches. From the gatehouse and the lever of the alarming mechanism, the burrs are removed with a file to increase the sensitivity of the trap. Particular attention is paid to the device for attaching a slut. The fact is that the swivel of factory-made traps is weak, it unbends even with a not so significant effort. A new swivel is made from a nail or iron wire with a cross section of 4-5 mm. It is better to make a leash for attaching a slut from a chain 40 cm long, and if there is no chain, from a steel cable 2-3 mm thick. A squabble is arranged from a stump of a tree, a metal anchor. As the latter, it is good to use a two-three-kilogram weight. In deep loose snow, the weight sinks deep and, without depriving the animal of the opportunity to move, at the same time quickly tires it. In severe frosts, having walked with such a slog for half a kilometer, or even less, the beast runs out of steam, lies down and freezes.
A chain is attached to a wooden shack at the site of the trap with an iron wedge, which is hammered into a stump with an ax butt. If a cable is used as a leash, a swivel is not needed. The cable is attached directly to the ring: the end of the cable is passed into it, bent, a brass or iron tube is put on the cable and its bent end, which is flattened, and thereby make a loop necessary for attaching the leash to a wooden sled. The cable is attached to the last one in the following way: a loop is made, which is put on the groove made in the shack, and tightened. To prevent the loop from coming apart, the cable is tightly fastened in two places with two brackets made of 100 mm nails.
Traps are kept hanging (in a bag) on the street: under a canopy, on a balcony, in a barn, but by no means in a garage where it smells of gasoline. Before hunting, the traps are checked, rust is removed from them with sandpaper and boiled in water with the addition of needles and tree bark. They carry traps in a backpack, in the same bag in which they are stored. Before installing the samolov, you can rub it with fir, spruce, pine needles, aspen bark or wormwood panicles, that is, with the improvised tool that is available near the place where the trap was installed. It is not recommended to rub the trap with wormwood in the forest, in the spruce forest and, conversely, with the needles of trees in the field.
They set traps in canvas mittens or woolen gloves, which they constantly store on the street along with traps. In order not to carry extra cargo with them, the skin from the caught fox is removed right there on the spot, and they are skinned and degreased at home or in a hunting hut. In conclusion, I want to remind the reader that when trapping foxes, the key to success is observation, accuracy and patience. It is better for a novice hunter to set three traps, as they say, "wisely" in a day, rather than ten.
A. Sitsko, game biologist
Exercise 1
FAREWELL TO SUMMER
For several days it poured down, without ceasing, cold rain. A wet wind roared in the garden ... It was the end of November - the saddest time in the village. The cat slept all day, curled up in an old armchair, twitching in his sleep as dark rainwater lashed the windows.
The roads were washed out. A yellowish foam, like a downed squirrel, was carried along the river. The last birds hid under the eaves, and for more than a week no one has visited us ...
The best time was in the evenings. We fired up the stoves. Noisy fire.
The lamps burned brightly, and the copper samovar sang and sang its simple song ... As soon as it was brought into the room, it immediately became cozy - perhaps because the glass was fogged up and you could not see a lonely birch branch that knocked on the window day and night ... (K. Paustovsky)
Most clearly, the change of seasons in the forest is expressed in the change in the color of leaves on trees and shrubs. The reason for the change in color of the leaves is that they contain coloring substances that appear depending on the amount of heat and light. In summer, the most active is the green substance - chlorophyll. In autumn, chlorophyll is destroyed, yellow and red substances appear, and the color of the leaves begins to change. Then they start to fall off.
2. 2. At the teacher's signal, mark the place where you are reading with a pencil.
3. 3. Read the text.
4. 4. In which of the texts is the presence of the author, his mood felt?
a) in the first
b) in the second
1. 5. Underline the phrases that support your answer with a straight line.
2. 6. Determine which text is artistic, which is scientific. Circle the answer:
a) 1 - artistic, 2 - scientific
b) 1 - scientific, 2 - artistic.
1. 7. There is a personification in one of the texts. Find and underline it with a dotted line.
2. 8. In the scientific text, find the words and expressions characteristic of the scientific style. Underline them with a wavy line.
Task 2
I do everything for my mother;
I play scales for her
I go to the doctor for her
I study mathematics.
All the boys climbed into the river,
I was alone on the beach
For her after illness
Didn't even swim in the river.
For her I wash my hands
Eating some carrots...
Only now we are separated.
Mom in Pryluky
Fifth day on a business trip.
And tonight all evening
There is nothing for me to do!
And probably out of habit
Or maybe out of boredom
I put matches in place
And for some reason I wash my hands
And the scales sound sad
In our room. Without mom.
(A. Barto)
1. 1. Read the poem quietly, in an undertone.
a) cheerfully, provocatively;
b) with indignation and indignation;
c) quietly, thoughtfully, sadly;
d) loudly, solemnly
1. 3. Find rhymes in the first two quatrains. Connect the rhyming lines with a pencil.
2. 4. Divide the poem into two parts.
3. 5. What is this poem about, what thought did you want to convey to us
a) the boy does everything for his mother;
b) the boy loves his mother very much and yearns for her;
c) the boy has a very strict mother, he unquestioningly obeys her.
1. 6. Underline the most important, in your opinion, lines.
The task3
1. 1. Read the text.
On the mountain ash that grew near the fence, no one knows where the squirrel appeared.
Fluffing out her tail, she sat in the fork of the trunk and looked at the bunches that swayed in the wind on thin branches.
The squirrel ran along the trunk and hung on a branch, swayed - jumped over the fence. She held a bunch of rowan in her mouth.
She quickly ran along the fence, and then hid behind a post, putting her fluffy, airy tail out.
"Fan" - I remembered. So the hunters call the squirrel tail.
The squirrel jumped to the ground and was no longer visible, but I was amused. I was glad that I looked at the squirrel and remembered the name of its tail, very well - fan.
Y. Koval
Answer the questions:
- “The squirrel was sitting in the fork of the trunk” - does this mean where she was sitting?
Why is a squirrel's tail called a fan?
The task4
Bear cubs.
The cubs were born in the den in January, and for the first time they got out of the den and saw the sun in April, when the snow melted. There were no berries in the forest then. And now, in the summer, both blueberries and raspberries are ripe. Mother bear found wild bees in the hollow and fed the cubs with sweet honey. And the cubs also learned to rake ant heaps. They will launch a paw into the anthill, lick the ants and launch it again.
G. Snegirev
Questions and tasks.
1. When and where were the cubs born? When did you first see the sun?
2. What do cubs eat?
4. What have the cubs learned?
5. How do you imagine a family of bears? Tell.
The task5
Fox and lamb
A flock of sheep spent the night outside the fence. The shepherds slept and the dogs slept.
A fox comes up, looks over the wattle fence, but does not dare to jump over: he is afraid of dogs.
I saw a lamb fox and asked:
What are you looking for? - He was small and did not see trouble.
I am looking for fragrant hay, - the fox whispers in response.
I thought you were eating lambs! - said the lamb. - Jump here, here's some hay for you.
Thank you, lamb, says the fox. - Come to me, I'll kiss you for it.
The lamb was about to go up to the fox, but the dogs barked, and the cheat ran into the forest.
Questions and tasks
1. What did the fox do on a dark night?
2. Explain the meaning of the word wattle fence.
3. How did the little lamb meet the fox? Why did he act like that with the fox? Answer with words from the text.
4. What does the fox look like to you? What is the name of the author in the text? How do you understand the word cheat?
5. To whom can each of these words be attributed: careless, inexperienced, cunning, stupid, never seen trouble, crafty?
Foxes have almost the same body structure and the same teeth as dogs, wolves and jackals, but differ from them in a longer body, set lower on the legs, and a more magnificent long tail.
The fox is one of the most famous wild animals. Proverbs and sayings mention her, many fairy tales have been written about her; the best fabulists of all times and peoples made her the heroine of their fables, and the great German poet Goethe wrote a whole poem about her. However, in all these tales and fables, the image of the fox does not correspond to reality. “An impartial observer,” says the naturalist Pehuel-Leshe, “will not find in this animal that degree of understanding, cunning and resourcefulness that popular rumor ascribes to it. In my opinion, the fox, in its sharpness, differs little from other predatory animals, for example, from the wolf. It can only be recognized as the ability to make excellent use of local conditions in order to escape from enemies; but other animals of the dog family have developed the same ability. When threatened, the fox sometimes even panics. She falls several times in a row into the same traps, and in general she is easily deceived. During raids, she is afraid of flags and rags and does not dare to run past them, despite the cries of the beaters and the shots of the hunters. When the hunter stands motionless, the fox does not soon recognize his presence and does not smell him for a long time if he approaches her from the windward side. Her eyesight and sense of smell are not particularly well developed.
By the color of their beautiful fur, foxes are very diverse. Among them are snow-white albinos, and very dark, black-brown, and even completely black foxes, occasionally found in our USSR in the northern regions and the Caucasus, and more often in northeastern Siberia. The fur industry, depending on the color of the wool, distinguishes a number of varieties of fox: karaganka (gray steppe fox), red, moth (bright red), krestovka (dark, in which the brownish color often goes in intersecting stripes along the ridge and through the shoulder blades), sivodushka ( dark black-bellied fox, transitional to silver-brown) and silver-brown.
The most valuable are the darkest fox skins - black-brown or black. Bright red skins of forest foxes are valued more than light steppe foxes. Pure white foxes, although very rare, have no value. The sivodushka can be both a dark form of the fox and a cross between red and black foxes.
Fox.
The fox is a valuable fur animal. In the USSR, up to half a million fox skins are mined annually, the best of which are valued at over fifty rubles, while silver-brown skins sometimes cost hundreds of rubles. Foxes are useful not only for their fur, but also for the fact that they exterminate rodents that are harmful to agriculture and forestry.
In North America, starting from the far north, lives the American fox, which is very similar to our European and Siberian. Among the red foxes there, as with us, there are those whose hair is colored darker. More often than in Siberia, completely black foxes with a silvery coating are found there. They are called silver foxes. Just such foxes, whose skins were valued very dearly, in Canada and the United States forty years ago began to be kept in cages for offspring and skins. Black foxes began to breed correctly in captivity, and little by little, first in America, then in Western Europe and in the USSR, a whole trade arose for breeding black foxes on special fox farms. Now there are a lot of such farms. There are farms that keep and feed a thousand foxes and more. We have two large fox state farms located near Moscow and one near the city of Povenets.
Foxes live in most countries of the Northern Hemisphere: throughout Europe, North Africa and Western and Northern Asia. They live in a wide variety of areas. Among the worst enemies of the fox is the wolf; therefore, where there are many wolves, foxes do not multiply very much; and vice versa, in countries where wolves are exterminated, the number of foxes mostly increases.
The fox chooses his lair with great care. She arranges it under stones or between the roots of large trees. The lair consists of a deep burrow with a rather spacious chamber. However, whenever possible, the fox tries to take possession of someone else's, already prepared hole. Most willingly, she uses the abandoned badger's lair, and sometimes even lives with him in the same hole. In autumn and winter, especially on the plains, the fox sometimes lives under a pile of brushwood or under stones, or makes its lair in the hollow of an old willow, or simply in a hole under thick bushes. In storm, rain, frost, and in extreme heat, the fox lies almost all the time in the hole; in good weather, in winter and summer, she scours the surroundings for prey and falls asleep where she needs to. In warm steppe countries, where there is little forest, for example, in the fertile part of Lower Egypt, foxes dig holes only for their cubs, while they themselves usually live on the surface of the earth.
The fox goes for prey mainly at night, but in sparsely populated and calm areas it hunts during the day. She sneaks very quietly and carefully, from time to time looks around and sniffs the air, tries to hide as best as possible, for which she chooses her way between stones, bushes and in tall grass. Usually she does not leave the forest, and if she has to cross a clearing, she decides to do this only when she finds cover in it in the form of bushes and large stones. Experienced hunters are well aware of the habits of the fox and almost always guess which paths (holes) it should run from one part of the forest to another.
The prey of the fox consists of a variety of animals, ranging from young roe deer to cockchafer, but most often it catches various mice. Examination of the stomachs of dead foxes showed that the fox eats, in addition to live prey, also carrion and berries. She eats a lot of small rodents. During autopsies, up to fifty mice and voles were found in the stomach of one fox. The fox successfully hunts for hares and rabbits, catches birds and devastates bird nests. There are cases when foxes swam up to the nests of swans and gnawed the females sitting on the eggs. Very often they attack poultry at night, and sometimes they drag chickens from the yard during the day. Especially often the fox visits poultry houses at the time when it feeds the growing cubs. “Returning one May morning from a hunt,” reports the senior forester Meyerink, “I saw an oak tree three hundred paces away from me, through the branches of which something white was moving calmly and slowly. I ran closer and saw a fox dragging a domestic goose in its teeth. I had already approached seventy paces and was preparing to pull the trigger, when the fox suddenly abandoned the goose and, jumping from branch to branch, quickly disappeared from sight. Marking the place where this oak was located with scraps of paper, I picked up the wounded goose and went home for helpers. Two hours later I was again at the marked oak with several hunters armed with axes and a ladder. We began to knock with axes on the tree until we drove out the fox, which was immediately killed. She turned out to be a female, and her swollen nipples indicated that she had small cubs. Then the hunters climbed up the tree and began to explore the hollow with a stick. At a depth of one and a half meters, we found cubs and, having hollowed out a tree at the base of the hollow, we got through the hole made the entire brood, which consisted of four one-month-old cubs.
The fox runs fast and dexterously. She can crawl, silently glide along the ground, rush at full speed and make very large jumps. However, good greyhounds easily overtake her. When running fast, the fox keeps its tail (like a hunting pipe) at attention, throwing it back, and when walking, drags it along the ground. When the fox lies in wait for prey, she lies down tightly with her belly on the ground, and when she rests, she often, like a dog, lies down, curled up in a ball, or lies on her side. Very often she sits on her hind legs, just like a dog, and throws her fluffy tail to her front legs. The fox is not at all afraid of water, goes into it willingly and swims easily and quickly. She also climbs quite easily and sometimes climbs the lower branches of trees. During floods or in spring when the water is hollow, foxes often climb onto the willows of the river valley.
The voice of the fox resembles a jerky bark, which turns into a sonorous thin squeal. Adults rarely bark, only before a thunderstorm, in bad weather or in severe frosts. Fox cubs scream and yelp whenever they are hungry or bored. In anger or danger, the fox grumbles loudly.
Foxes do not gather in flocks, although they are often found in several pieces in one hole. Between themselves, they live far from friendly, and during hunger strikes they devour their wounded and weak relatives. The forester Muller watched how six fox cubs first played merrily with each other, then because of something they quarreled and bit one to the point of blood. The wounded animal was about to run away, but was overtaken by his sisters, killed and immediately eaten. The same fate befell one shot young fox, which still had the strength to get to the hole, but was eaten by its sisters there.
The female fox gives birth to four to six blind cubs in May. The cubs begin to see after twelve days, after three to four weeks they stop suckling, but for another three to four months they live in a hole where their mother brings them prey.
Little foxes are easy to raise under a dog that lets them near its nipples on a par with puppies. If handled well, they soon become tame. “Of the many foxes living with me,” Lenz says, “the last, the female, was the most tame, since I took her very small when she was just starting to eat on her own. At first, she was distinguished by a special enthusiasm and ardor. When she was given her favorite food, she began to growl angrily even when no one touched her. However, her friendly and affectionate treatment soon made her so tame that she did not get angry even when I pulled out of her bloody mouth a rabbit that she had just bitten. She always enjoyed playing with me. As an adult, she, too, always rejoiced at my arrival, wagging her tail like a dog, and jumping around me with a screech. If a dog passed by, she began to jump and bare her teeth. During the day she was as cheerful as at night.
Foxes are hunted with a gun, poisoned by dogs and dug out of their holes. They are also caught with all sorts of traps and iron traps. “With great caution,” Winckel says, “the fox walks towards the place where the traps are set. Once, on a frosty winter day, when it was starting to get dark, I witnessed how a hungry fox approached the trap. Diligently and without suspecting anything, she picked up the farthest pieces of the scattered bait, conveniently located for eating and waving her tail. But the closer she came to the place where the trap was, the more cautious she became. Now, before taking a piece of bait, she circled around it several times. When she reached the last piece hanging in a hidden trap, she stopped and sat down. Sitting against this fatal piece, she looked at it for ten minutes without taking her eyes off it, but did not dare to grab it. Then she ran several times around the trap. Finally, apparently convinced of the apparent safety, she again went close to the trap and stretched out her front paw for a piece, but could not get it. She sat down again in front of the trap, contemplating a tidbit, and suddenly rushed at him; and at the same moment an iron necklace clasped her neck.
Foxes have enemies other than humans. They are caught and eaten by wolves, large birds of prey kidnap cubs, and the golden eagle attacks even adult foxes, although they sometimes manage to escape from this mighty feathered predator. “A fox,” says naturalist Chudi, “running through a glacier, was grabbed by a golden eagle and lifted into the air. But soon the predator somehow strangely flapped its wings and disappeared behind a rock. I went up there and was surprised to see a fox rush past me. On the other side of the rock, I found a dying eagle with its chest torn to pieces. The fox, apparently, managed to free its neck and head and grab onto the bird's throat.
Foxes are prone to all canine diseases, including rabies.
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