The effect of a natural reduction of red fox Vulpes vulpes on small game hunting bags in Norway

An epizootic of sarcoptic mange among red foxes Vulpes vulpes reached centr al Norway in 1976, and by 1986 it had spread to the whole country, resultin g in a severe decline in the red fox population. We analyse the change in t he hunting bags of the predator species red fox and pine marten Martes mart es, and the prey species capercaillie Tetrao urogallus, black grouse Tetrao tetrix, mountain hare Lepus timidus and willow grouse Lagopus l. lagopus f rom the period prior to and during the mange epizootic. The data are gather ed from publications by Statistics Norway and are based on answers from mor e than 5,000 hunters yearly. On the national level, the hunting bags of cap ercaillie, black grouse, mountain hare and pine marten were significantly n egatively correlated with that of the red fox. When the time series at the national level were detrended, there were positive correlations between the hunting bags of all species without time lag, except that of pine marten, which lagged one year behind the other species. At the local level there we re negative correlations between the hunting bag of red fox and those of th e small game species except for willow grouse. The study confirms that the red fox is a keystone predator in Scandinavia.