A bloodthirsty fox killed nearly 100 valuable game birds at an Angus farm in what has been described as a “frenzied attack.”
Gamekeeper William Hardy walked out to a scene of carnage on Monday morning following the slaughter, which saw 72 ducks and 26 pheasants killed in their pens, at Invergighty near Boysack.
It is thought the animal struck in the early hours and managed to scale a large fence, before effectively walking a tightrope on a net suspended four feet off the ground.
Each of the holes in the net is one-and-a-half inches wide and it appears the fox balanced on the thin sections, before using its weight to reach down to the birds and attack them through the mesh.
Mr Hardy said it seemed the killings had been made for sport rather than food, as so many birds were targeted at random.
After laying out the carcases in a large heap to survey the extent of the damage, the gamekeeper claimed he had never seen anything of such a ferocious nature in all his 50 years in the industry.
“We have known there has been a fox about for a while, but it looks like it has gone right to the top of the fencing and walked on the top of the net,” he said. “It has been out there through the night killing the birds and pulling their legs and heads off.
“It is probably a cub because it is just killing them and we found a pad mark that would suggest it is just a cub.”
The birds are reared to be sold on or put into game shoots and those killed were worth an estimated £450 or more if used in a commercial shoot. Almost the entire flock was wiped out, leaving the breeders to put the injured birds down humanely.
After killing the birds it appears the fox attempted to bury one of the ducks, to return for it later.
“I have never seen a fox go on top of a net to get to birds,” said Mr Hardy. “This goes to demonstrate that foxes are not the cute and cuddly animals that some people think they are they are killers.
“It is a massive attack. I have never seen these kind of numbers killed in one night before.”
Mr Hardy said an electric fence would now be put up around both the duck and pheasant pens and the fox is likely to be shot if it is spotted again.