Trouble on the Croft

This ewe isn't, as she appears, contentedly curled up in the back of a trailer having a nap. She's dead, and her end was probably prolonged and agonising.

She was found yesterday morning at the bottom of a field on the shore of Kilchoan Bay, the only evidence for her ordeal being two pairs of neat but bloody puncture marks on either side of her throat. She'd probably been killed by the large fox which has been seen several times recently moving along the banks of the Millburn.

The Diary has to admit to having been totally ignorant of the fact that foxes kill fully grown sheep. They kill lambs, yes, and they might kill a yearling hogg, but this was a large animal. That the foxes are doing this so early in the winter suggests a desperate shortage of food. Perhaps our local fox population had a good breeding season - as have some of their competitors such as the buzzards - and this may be reflected in the sudden disappearance of rabbits from the fields.

Whatever the reason, this ewe's death does not bode well for our crofters. The depredations of foxes is something else for them to contend with through what may be a long, cold winter.