COMPARISON BETWEEN THE USE OF OPEN AND WALLED PLATFORMS BY JUVENILE BLUE FOXES (ALOPEX-LAGOPUS)

The current European recommendations require that platforms in the cag es of farm foxes should have solid sides. The present study aimed to c larify how such a obstructed view affects platform use in farmbred blu e foxes (Alopex lagopus). Experimental groups with open (16 males, 14 females) and walled (16 males, 14 females) platforms were compared fro m weaning to pelting. Both platform types were 110 cm long x 30 cm wid e. Walled platforms had 23 cm high walls at the ends and rear, but ope n ones were without walls. Data were collected by daytime scanning obs ervations and 24-h video recordings. Results for both sexes were paral lel, showing that foxes significantly (p<0.001) prefer open platforms over walled types. Video recordings revealed a significantly (p<0.01) greater use of open platforms for jumping and resting (short duration 1-10 min on platform) compared to walled platforms. A rather parallel conclusion was found for sleeping also. The only exception was in Sept ember when females given both platform types slept on them for the sam e amount of time on average. The disturbance test showed that foxes su pplied with open type platforms jumped onto them significantly (p<0.05 ) more often (62.5% of males, 85.7% of females) than those given the w alled type (25.0% of males, 35.7% of females). It can be concluded tha t foxes avoid platforms with walls because such platforms prevent obse rvation of the surroundings and therefore the possibility to adjust th eir distance to danger.