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“I think this site is very interesting and is a great thing to do I am sure Don  would be proud” - email from Natalie Bunyan

We have included Don’s notes exactly as he wrote them as reminders for when he was giving slideshows to various bodies. We know that he expanded on these, but we wish to remain true to the original documentation.

Fox

1. Often referred to as the common red fox.
2. Very bushy tail, often white at the tip.
3. The male is called a dog, the female a vixen and the young are cubs.
4. Habitat - den or earth with several entrances.
5. A strong musky odour will tell if one has passed through a wood recently.
6. Both sexes are excellent parents.  If the vixen is killed, providing the cubs have been weaned, the dog fox will rear the young.
7. The rabbit formed the major part of the fox’s diet prior to myxomatosis, but this disease led tp the fox becoming more daring and coming regularly to farmyards for ducks and chickens.
8. Often kills for the sake of killing.
9. The fox den is usually an enlarged rabbit hole.
10. An old fox would be justified in saying “Men say I stink, but I can smell at half a mile the man who can’t smell me at 50 yards.”

Red Deer

1. The only native deer are red deer and roe deer.  7 species live in Britain.
2. The males are stags, the females are hinds, and the young are calves.  A young, two-year-old stag is called a knobber. Stags failing to grow antlers are called hummels.
3. Only stags grow antlers. Antlers are normally shed during the period from March to May, the old stags casting first.
4. The rut - the mating season approximately 20th September to 31st October, the calves being born in June.
5. Stags are usually names according to the number of tines or points on antlers. A stag with 4 on each beam is an 8 pointer.