{"id":2411,"date":"2012-10-05T00:10:44","date_gmt":"2012-10-04T23:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/archives\/2411"},"modified":"2013-11-03T18:38:15","modified_gmt":"2013-11-03T18:38:15","slug":"churchyard-fox-flystrike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/churchyard-fox-flystrike\/","title":{"rendered":"Churchyard Fox (flystrike?)"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

It will probably not come as too great a surprise that whenever I am out I have half an eye open for foxes. Today, that half-an-eye paid off. I had wandered to the far end of the local churchyard, and lurking behind the gravestones, hidden from view of the path, was a somewhat bedraggled fox.
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It was unusually passive, and just sat there for a while as I edged closer. It was then that I noticed an uncommonly high number of flies skirting its rump. I'm no expert in this, but it suggests that the fox is suffering from 'flystrike', more commonly seen in rabbits but capable of afflicting many mammals. It's an unpleasant and often fatal condition caused by parasitic flies laying eggs on (or in) a living host.
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I watched as it slowly moved away, the small swarm of flies accompanying it the whole time. They're difficult to see in these photos, but believe me they're there.
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There's little that can be done for a wild fox in this condition without capturing it and getting specialist care. I couldn't spot where it had gone after it sloped out of the churchyard, but there are local woods and farms around, so it's potentially a large territory. <\/p>\n

It's always difficult to watch animals in this condition, but an inevitable part of wildlife watching. <\/p>\n

As a slight antidote to all the above, a rather more pleasing photo of Shy Boy in our garden last night after all the rain.
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Camera note: all chruchyard fox photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 100-400mm f\/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens. Shy Boy was snapped with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,67],"tags":[911,1128],"class_list":["post-2411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foxes","category-mange","tag-flystrike","tag-fox","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t