‘Red Dog’ – Once Abundant, Now Vulnerable: The Fox’s Decline
Fox, wolf, tiger, leopard are fierce beasts frequently mentioned by people. Historically, these four wild animals all lived in most parts of China. Among them, the fox, with the smallest size, ranked first among the four fierce beasts. The fox was once widely distributed, and some older people could still say that they knew one or two foxes, but in the recent decades, the fox has suddenly disappeared and become extremely scarce. What is the reason for this? Do you know what the fox looks like?
The fox, also known as ‘fox-dog’ or ‘red dog’, has a body shape similar to a dog, with a weight of about 20 kilograms. The fox is a typical mountain animal, likes to live in groups, and is good at hunting. They often gather in groups of three or five, sometimes a group of more than 10, collectively chasing prey, often using an encirclement method to prey. Their claws and teeth are sharp, fierce and brutal and greedy. They usually surround the prey in a circle, attacking from front to back, and within a short time, they will divide the prey cleanly.
The fox is also the most fierce and flexible dog in the canine family. Although its body is smaller than the wolf, its combat effectiveness is higher than that of the wolf. The fox has extremely developed hearing and sense of smell, and its movements are quick and mysterious. It immediately avoids any abnormalities. Its main food is deer, roe deer, musk deer, mountain goats, and other odd-toed animals, and it also dares to attack large animals such as buffalo, horses, and wild boars, and even launches provocations and attacks on wolves, leopards, and other fierce beasts in groups.
According to folklore, the fox is a hunting dog, so in the fierce beasts, the fox is the most fierce. Wherever there are foxes, wolves, tigers and leopards will avoid them. The four words ‘fox, wolf, tiger, leopard’ combined together, represent all fierce and brutal beasts, and are also used to metaphor for fierce and evil people. The fox ranks first, may be related to the fox’s ruthless methods of hunting prey. The fierce image of the fox has deeply rooted in people’s minds.
Although the fox-dog is fierce in nature, it is an important member of the natural ecological balance. It plays an important role in maintaining the hygiene of the natural environment. In some mountainous areas, due to the harm of wild boars, pigs and dogs to corn crops, the people regard the fox as a god fox, to help them control the harm of beasts to crops. Although there have been cases of fox-dogs attacking livestock in some places, fox-dogs have a fear of people and rarely attack humans.
In most parts of China, people can encounter foxes in remote areas. The fox was once widely distributed in most areas of China. In the past, everywhere regarded the fox as a harmful beast and did not protect it. In addition, foxes hunt livestock, so people tried various ways to eliminate them. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that fox skin (meat) has the effect of replenishing deficiency, eliminating accumulation, dispersing stagnation and swelling, and treating deficiency-related body weakness, food accumulation, bruises and swelling, hemorrhoids and fistula. Therefore, there was a large market, so people tried various ways to hunt foxes.
Until the end of the 1970s, the number of foxes was numerous, often appearing in fields and forests, feeding on wild boars and other animals. With the disappearance of tigers and leopards, the fox gradually became a rare species in China. Habitat reduction, poaching, and the reduction of prey numbers are the main reasons. In addition, foxes are easily affected by various diseases, especially when living with other canine animals, they may be infected with rabies and canine plague. It is suspected that the sharp decline in the fox population may be a sudden infection with a certain disease.
With the sharp reduction in the number of foxes, in 1989, China listed the fox as a secondary national protected animal. However, according to the results of field surveys in the past 10 years, only 6 provinces in China have confirmed records of foxes, and they are basically around the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. In other areas where foxes used to live, there have been few reports of foxes in recent years, becoming a ‘vulnerable’ species.
