2024-07-28 20:00:31
“It’s not so bad this year!” says Rene Garskamp, a forester in the Zuid-Holland region. “We significantly reduced the fox population in Vijfheerenlanden last spring, so we didn’t have to shoot too many this year. One of them built a structure (a cave, editor’s note) on the embankment of the motorway, and we’re not allowed there, while another one hid well elsewhere. But other than that, it’s been a quiet year.”
Gaskamp recalls how different things were in 2022. “We then went through two years of litigation. Our immunity to hunt foxes was challenged, so as long as there was something like this in the courts, we were powerless for a while. When the judge finally allowed it again, in the early spring of ’22, we suddenly found nearly a hundred foxes in the area.”
He knows exactly why Garskamp hunts foxes. “We do it to protect the meadow birds.” In this sense, fox hunting seems to be a common denominator in the scarce regions of the Netherlands, where meadow birds such as godwits are still doing well. In polders such as Ronde Hoep and Bovenkerk near Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, godwits still survive quite well, while foxes are strictly isolated and controlled. The same is true in Vijfheerenlanden, where Garskamp works.
“Last breeding season, I observed 600 nests in Vijfheerenlanden,” says godwit conservationist Astrid Kant. “Only four of them died during the nesting phase. So that’s nothing! My colleagues who try to conserve godwits in areas with a lot of foxes sometimes express envy for these numbers. And I’m sure my losses during the nesting phase would be much higher if there were a lot of foxes hanging around here.”
Selective anger
Once godwit eggs hatch, many chicks still die in the beaks of gulls, marsh harriers or herons, or in the mouths of small mustelids. Yet Kant is the last person to argue that these predators must be fought. “So, yes,” she fully admits, “I feel selective anger about meadow birds dying at the hands of predators. Why I think it’s OK to fight foxes, but I shouldn’t consider fighting harriers to save godwits? I can’t really explain it to you…”
To a large extent, the selective outrage of Kant and other (meadow) bird protectors probably stems from the success of the fox. Although the animal was driven back to the higher, sandy soils of eastern Holland in the 1950s due to intensive hunting, the fox can now be found almost throughout the Netherlands. Only the Wadden Islands remain fox-free, so it is almost only there that you will find large colonies of, for example, spoonbills that dare to breed on the ground.
Foxes are now a protected species nationwide after hunting was first banned in nature reserves, but given the current high fox population, obtaining an exemption from the ban on fox fighting does not seem at first glance to be too difficult a task if the status of godwits can be supported.
In any case, ranger Gaskamp has no moral problem with this, he says. “If you recognise that we don’t have real nature in the Netherlands and that most cultural areas have high natural values, then you also recognise that you should garden there? You keep the water table at a certain level, mow the whole area and make sure that the successful foxes don’t eat the last birds that are not doing so well. Garnets used to be the most numerous duck here. The fact that we are now able to have some of them alive again is largely thanks to the fight against foxes,” says Gaskamp.
‘The fox is just part of it’
Independent mammal researcher Jasja Dekker reacted somewhat cautiously to Garskamp’s request. “Predators such as foxes are a natural part of a healthy ecosystem,” he stressed. “At the same time, I can quite imagine that you want to fight predators when the last specimens of a particular animal species are in danger of disappearing.”
Decker stressed that such control must be very targeted and proven to be effective. “The first step is of course: Are all other limiting factors in the area addressed? Is the habitat tidy, are water levels and mowing management adjusted, is reproductive success too low, is this due to predation by foxes? It should also be checked whether other protection methods are feasible, such as electric fencing.
“If that doesn’t work, or the area is too large and you turn to fox killing, do it in a targeted, systematic way and at the right time. Otherwise you’ll have too little impact on the numbers, or every empty spot will be immediately filled again by a stray fox. And evaluate what you’ve done. You want to prove that it really is the foxes’ fault and not one of the many other problems facing grassland birds.”
Decker is sympathetic to the position of groups like the SPCA that no animal should be controlled in favor of another. He does point out that things may turn out differently than animal rights groups would like. “In a system where all predators are allowed to do what they want, even with much less intensive agriculture, birds like godwits and other ground-breeding birds would be locally extinct, or at least greatly reduced in numbers. You just have to be honest about that: it’s part of the moral decision you make. The reason grassland birds were so abundant in the 1960s was because many raptors and other predators were either exterminated or intensively controlled, in addition to another kind of agriculture.”
Foxes are photogenic
Compared to the herds of meadow bird lovers who want to drastically repel foxes, there is still a large group of enthusiasts. Especially in Amsterdam’s Waterleidingduinen between Zandvoort and Noordwijk, they can enjoy themselves, for example by participating in organized fox photography workshops. Commercial nature photographers fail to mention in their brochures that these foxes are largely tamed with sausage slices and can eat from your hand without embarrassment.
Jeroen Engelhart, a ranger at Waternet and manager of Waterleidingduinen, is frustrated. “You can walk along the paths in our area, which is very special. But the fact that at one point there was a whole circle of photographers waiting at the exit of the fox farm for the cubs to come out is really too much!”
Engelhardt, himself an enthusiast, immediately admits. “Foxes are beautiful, they’re smart, and they’re cunning. But if they come to you asking if there’s anything you can give them to eat, then something is really wrong. All this extra feeding also keeps weaker animals alive. You really shouldn’t want that, especially in a Natura 2000 area.”
A well-fed fox is a dead foxThere is a famous British green proverb, or: A fox that becomes so tame by getting food from humans will sooner or later become a problem fox that has to be shot. So far, Engelhardt has not had any unpleasant incidents with overly aggressive foxes. “Fortunately none,” he says. “But we have started to fine people who don’t comply with the rules on closing rest areas. In this case, a photo of a fox suddenly costs 110 euros more.
“Honestly, with the telephoto lenses these guys carry, you don’t even need to get close to foxes. We now have warning signs in certain places to keep at least fifty metres away from the animals. The fact that this is necessary with an animal as naturally shy as a fox speaks volumes.”
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