Agency says no plans to fully protect foxes

There are no plans to give foxes full protection, the Nature Conservation Agency told mbl.is, despite the agency’s earlier statement that the grounds for fox hunting had weakened.

Fróði Guðmundur Jónsson, a specialist in ecosystem and hunting management at the agency, said no proposals had been made to introduce a general ban on fox hunting.

A total of 7,268 foxes were hunted in Iceland last year.

Morgunblaðið has reported in recent weeks on the agency’s statement that the basis for fox hunting had weakened and that the system needed to be reviewed. The statement was included in the agency’s plan for the next two years and was based on the small number of reported cases of damage caused by foxes in recent years.

However, the Nature Conservation Agency receives reports of only some of the damage caused by predators, Jónsson said. Damage caused by foxes is reported by fox hunters through hunting forms submitted to municipalities.

The municipalities have agreements with the agency under which they receive reimbursement for part of the cost of fox hunting. In return, they must submit an annual report containing information on foxes and mink caught, costs, receipts from hunters and details about the foxes, including which dens were searched and whether they contained breeding animals, adults or cubs.

The forms also contain a section on damage caused by foxes. It asks for the name and farm of the person affected, the nature and extent of the damage, the estimated financial loss and the affected person’s contribution to the cost.

Jónsson said information about foxes caught, dens searched and hunting costs was generally submitted properly, but the section on damage was almost never completed. Officially recorded cases could be counted on one or two hands each year, he said.

He added that the agency was aware that foxes prey on meadow birds, eggs and chicks, but that it was more difficult to manage damage caused by an animal living freely in the wild. Almost no damage to sheep was reported, he said.

People interviewed by Morgunblaðið in Skagafjörður, including a fox hunter and a municipal employee, said there had been several cases of damage to sheep there this year. The newspaper also obtained photographs of a grown lamb that had recently had to be euthanised after being attacked by a fox in Húnavatn County.

Another fox hunter interviewed by the newspaper in southern Iceland said she had not seen signs of predator attacks for many years.

Jónsson said the agency sometimes received reports of damage from farmers by email and recorded them. He understood farmers’ complaints that it had not been clear in recent years how such damage should be reported.

“If no information about damage is received, we are clearly not managing to capture the situation properly. The system therefore needs to be changed in some way, including how damage is reported or recorded,” Jónsson said.