Fox numbers 'not reduced by hunting'

Traditional fox hunting is useless at controlling foxes, according to the first extensive study of how riding with hounds fails to affect overall numbers of the farm pest.

The findings, published in the journal Nature today, are certain to be used in support of those wishing to outlaw fox hunting, who argue that a permanent ban would be unlikely to cause a big increase in fox numbers.

Biologists from Bristol University ran a nationwide survey of fox numbers before and after the outbreak last year of foot-and-mouth disease, which led to a year's suspension of fox hunting across much of Britain.

They compared fox numbers for two winters preceding the hunting ban with numbers in the winter immediately after the ban. They found there was no marked change in the density of foxes living on 160 plots of land randomly selected in the fox-hunting heartlands of England.

Professor Stephen Harris, who led the study, said the findings clearly demonstrated that hunting played no substantial role in regulating fox numbers. "In fact, these results add weight to the argument that foxes regulate their own numbers and that all forms of fox culling are less important than hitherto believed," Professor Harris said.

Each plot of land measured 1 sq km (247 acres) and was exhaustively searched by volunteers for signs of foxes by counting fresh droppings or "scats".

"Hunting was banned and other forms of fox control were curtailed ... Yet despite the ban on hunting and restrictions on a variety of rural activities for nearly a year, fox numbers did not increase or decrease," said Professor Harris, who said he would present the findings next week to a public hearing on hunting with dogs organised by Alun Michael, the minister for Rural Affairs.