Articificial/Manmade Den Sites

K

Kendog

New member
Is there any information or study on creating artificial dens for fox or yotes in a natural environment, as an effort to encourage them to occupy during breeding season? Thank you.
 
I read about Brittish terrier men doing this. I might even have the book. I'll have to look and get back to you. Oscar
 
Kendog,
There really isn't any type of "artificial" den that you can make without using natural products from that area. If you want to create a den in an area that you can watch during breeding season, you can make a large pile of brush. To do this you need to use a bulldozer or something that is capable of knocking down large trees and pushing them all into a large pile. But, you are still not guaranteed that coyotes will utilize this as their den.
I would also like to know what your intentions for this would be. Are you wanting to study their actions through video or do you want to use it as a hunting method? I'm always wanting to learn new methods.

Dave
 
With a long time fascination for foxes, and having hunted them for years, I now prefer to study and film them, and keep the hunting/calling work for coyotes. The past two years have produced a red fox den back behind the house 1/4 mile, along the edge of a large open tract of land. Also through this land cuts a railroad track with a small south facing hillside, which the fox like to use as a secondary den site, allowing some afternoon sunning. This den allows for easy sightings by the neighborhood and easy pickings for folks and their 22cals. from the kitchen window, or car window as they cross the RR tracks. Basically this den gets terrorized constantly and few fox survive.

My nearby property has southern sun, thick escape cover, food sources, and smaller brush piles. I would like create a preferred denning environment in hopes of a tenant and to provide some security for a fox family. Also allowing for continued filming/study.

I have found some info about relocating kit foxes where artificial dens were created, but have not seen a schematic, etc. So I am looking for info, knowledge, and similar discoveries on this concept. Tampering with nature in a good way.
 
Teach a badger to dig the holes for you on a sunny slope!!!!!! Around here in IA they use the drainage cuverts that run 60' from the grain field to the lower part of the drainage ditch.
They usually modify a badger hole on a hill, from when the badger dug for food.
I had an idea, take a bracket and put it on the ends of the culvert to stop the coyotes from entering, but, allowing the fox to enter as a way to help the fox escape the coyotes.KY
 
Coyote dens in a culvert? Hmmm, I wonder what happens to the pups when it rains a couple of inches. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Rich,
When I was doing full time ADC work I did take a couple fox dens out of culverts (but it hasn't rained much in most of Wyoming for several years) but they could be rudely moved by a good gully washer.
 
Cal Taylor,
Now that I can believe with no problem. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I too have seen some area's where there were old culverts that water didn't run through em anymore because of silt build-up and etc that may well be used for a den. It just seems as though we have a feller around here who thinks he has more knowledge than he really does. LOL. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I have never seen water in these tubes they are dry unless there is a flood. I have seen them use these in the winter time. I don't go out to see if they use them in the spring. If they got a lot of water in them there wouldn't be a bunch of grass laying in them sometimes.KY
 
Tactical 20 said----" posted 02-23-2003 09:31 PM
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I have never seen water in these tubes they are dry unless there is a flood. I have seen them use these in the winter time. I don't go out to see if they use them in the spring."

Tactical,
That clears the muddy water for certain. Denning happens in the spring, and you don't go check the culverts at that time. Interesting!
 
culverts make great dens go to youre local township and ask if they got any old concrete tile laying around if they do just grap a couple of sections take home dig you a ditch along a fence row lay the tile in the trench with the open end down more then the other end so the water wont run up in it ,seal the joint where the two tiles meet with tar so it wont leak than take a piece of barn metal or plywood seal the other end then take the dirt and proceed to cover it up. We have clean out lots of culverts with mad mommys and puppys even taken two home for pets years ago. But we have seen where the mommy have moved the pups during a rainy spell only to bring them back when it was over, even see them come out of the culverts coverd in mud. Just get a culvert about 18" or bigger.
 
Ilcoyote, I was thinking the same thing, the county probably has some old rusty tubes they pulled to put in the new steel or plastic ones.
If a fox or coyote uses the culvert in the dead of winter,I can see no reason why they wouldn't use them in the spring or summer to den or escape the heat. The open ones I am talking about see water less than once in ten years.
Seeing that the coyote is so adaptable to surviving it would not be a supprise to find they are using them year round. KY
 
I consider a coyote or fox denned up if it goes in a hole or culvert to escape the weather or a hunter.
R.Cronc, I sense a little animosity towards me,
I'm not sure why.
Is this how you communicate all the time?KY
 
Tactical,
I'm actually fairly easy to get along with. Sometimes I find it necessary however, to find out if some people actually know as much as they think they do. I have this friend who don't know how to tell the truth, but I still like HIM. He once told me of this buck with a really big rack that he had seen a week earlier. It was middle of july when he told me about this large racked buck. I didn't believe him, and finally got him to admit the lie.
 
If I say something it is the truth as far as I can tell. I am the real thing, I don't bs people.
On the culvert thing it is what I saw, more than several times for several years.
I would have no reason to not tell the truth. When I find out I am being bsed I will not talk to the person again. I always tell the truth and expect it from others. That is why I am a little gullable.
I don't claim to know everything, most of what I know I observed it, or learned it from people like O'Gorman.KY
 
I was thinking on the culvert subject a few days ago, and I realized that I have seen a coyote use one for a den. Three winters in a row a female coyote went into a, not open on both ends, culvert while I was hunting in the imediate area. I told the farmer to see if I could set a conibear for it. He said go ahead, and said he knew she was using it for a den. It is 2-250 yards from a beef cattle barnlot. The tile, or steel culvert end, ends at the creek. T.20
 
I killed another coyote in a culvert tube, in Dec. This is 5 or 6 now in the last two years. They seem to use them during the day. T.20
 
WOW, What a heated topic for a few posts. A couple years back I was on my way up to Kenai Lake to meet a friend of mine for a spring bear hunt when I seen a lynx run into a culvert. I pulled over to have a look see and found that she had a litter of kittens in there. And this was right under the Sterling Hwy too. I couldnt tell how many she had as it was too dark in side and she had them all nestled about her. A week later on the return trip I stopped again to see if they were still there so I could show my buddy. They were gone. There was however, a considerable amount of dead grass inside. The grass was well matted with quite a bit of lynx fur mixed in, as if the lynx had been in there for a while. This particular culvert is high enough not to fill unless there was an abnormal amount of rain mixed with the spring run off. I am convinced that she had raised her litter in that culvert.
 


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