Fox hunting in Touraine (Loire)

Getting ready for the fox A bit of fresh air now with some fox hunting in the Loire. Well, fresh air might not be the right wording, knowing that foxes are said to smell weird sometimes, and that might either not be close to be related with wine, but I had a blank in my line of stories, and isn't foxy a little-known aromatic feature (ça renarde in French) found in certain wines with defaults ? All right, that's a bit tricky for a connection with wine, but to make it pass, there'll be a Kir for everyone at the end of this story, so let's enjoy this walk in the woods ! You've been drinking too much wine lately, anyway, from what I've been told, so get yourself some exercise...
Fox hunting is something I never took part to, and it appears a bit different from the other group-hunting types, like ambushing roe deers for example. I had been walking by myself in the wild a few times recently looking for mushrooms, but as they seem more seldom this year than they use to be in my favorite spots (I made a few tries but not very successful indeed), this outing was a welcome opportunity to come back to the woods and enjoy the autumn colors and the particular light of this season.
We all met before 8am at the hunters community place, the night had been quite cold for early october, like 2,7° C from what I checked myself, and we were to find spots in the fields with the typical frost white on the grass, proving that in places it went below O°C. The chief hunter reminded the rules in a short speech and pre-planified the groups of shooters around the blocks of woods that they intended to comb.

Dogs ready for the assault As said, hunting fox is not like hunting deer, even if there's the scheme of encircling woods too. Foxes, from what I understand, usually choose their home in the most hostile environment, like impenetrable, thick underwoods with brambles and compact bushes. Thinking they're secure in there, they often don't flee when hearing people or hunters agitating outside their area. It takes a high number of specialized dogs to push the foxes out of their vegetal shelter, and this is what I witnessed that day. Two people were doing the beaters job that day plus me : the owner of the dogs (of 15 of them to be precise), and a young boy. Here, the dogs have just been let free for the first combing early in the morning, they're preparing to go into the bushes after running around to play and also piss or more... Dogs waiting Here are they, waiting in the van belonging to one of the hunters. There are 22 big dogs in there, waiting patiently for their favorite outing : going after foxes. 15 of these dogs belong to one of the hunters, the other to another. Here they're clean and dry, but they'll soon be wet and panting after some time running on the grass wet with the morning dew. Don't be mistaken by their apparent dullness, they're just taking on themselves to endure the short drive to the dropping spot. As soon outside, they aren't the same dogs, they get on track immediately and know what they're looking for : a distant cousin of theirs, the fox This is it ! The hunters will first take their position around pre-established blocks of woods, after which the van unloads its secret lethal weapon at the far end of the block, in order to comb it all the way to the other end. The dogs come out of the van from two openings, this one in the back, and another one on the right side (see my video further down to watch the emptying of the van from its dogs). I haven't figured exactly how so many dogs can fit into that vehicule, but they do, and the owner told me that each single one has his own place in there, and they find it as soon as they get back inside, barking at the careless fellow dog who chose the wrong spot. When a dog REALLY has a breathing problem... I know some of you must think that this van must be pretty cramped to accomodate 22 big dogs, please, don't report them to the SPCA, this is just for short transportation distances, and just compare with this scene above where Otto has really a breathing problem because of careless humans [see script of the scene here].... Now, this is what I'd call a real breathing issue !
But to be frank, I'm not sure I'd be ready to apply the kiss-of-life solution if the 22 dogs happened to faint in there...
It's always a pleasure for me to watch a scene from one of my cult movies, Lady Killers, a movie of course directed by the Cohen brothers. Combing the woods This video shows a couple of beats we've made this morning, beginning with the impressive scene where the 22 dogs leave the van almost at once. Once inside the woods, there's an intriguing vocal exchange between the owner and the dogs while they scour the area, jumping joyously in the most uneasy landscape. The man and the boy here were pretty used to this exercise, but at one point I was loosing my breath and had a hard time keeping pace with the group. Waiting for the fox This is on a road going along the woods which we were combing. Not much traffic, no need to say, this was a side road. The hunter watches the woods, listening to the way the dogs bark, as they do it an unmistakable way when they're flushing a fox. In case a fox goes out of the woods, he'll wait for it to be heading away in the open before shooting, so as not risk harm the beaters or dogs in the woods (or fellow shooters on the other side of the block). Passing through prairies What I like when I follow the beaters in any type of hunting, it's that you discover different types of landscapes, passing from woods (not always the ones I visit for mushrooms) to prairies, to fields and even sometimes walking on the edge of villages or hamlets. Plus you see the places just after the sun rises, at a time when most people prefer to cocoon in a warm interior (the white smoke going out from several chimneys I spotted that early morning made me visualize people lighting up a stove or a fireplace). I wrote this several times in the past, but again, autumn is one of the best seasons to go out in the nature, the smells are particularly vivid in the underwoods and the light is beautiful. Passing a hunter Compared to our run through the woods, the hunters or shooters' task appears as lacking any kind of exercise, even though there were several wood blocks to encircle along the morning and they had tove to the next each time. I'd say I prefer walking with the dogs, even if I understand there's some excitement when gamey jumps out of the woods. This is the issue with hunting in group : it's a social thing but at the same time you're left clueless on your appointed spot waiting for the meager chance that the animal will go out near where you stay. I'm sure that many were like me, waiting impatiently for what lies behind the last picture of this story... Corn fields At this point, it was well into the late morning, and the dogs were beginning to feel tired. They combed the corn field on the side just in case (no fox was in there) and this was soon the end of the party. At the end, the chief hunter sent out the signal with his horn, and everyone took the direction of the village. No dog was lost, I was surprised, as sometimes with fewer dogs you have several of them going astray and following leads to who-knows-wat, with the owner having to look after them with a couple of hunters. Waiting at a corner I must admit that I let go the beaters several times to rest near a hunter at the edge of the woods. At a couple of such occasions, like here, this was near a walnut tree. there are many such walnut trees along fields, it seems, I guess they were planted long time ago by farmers, but it seems that apart from squirrels, they aren't really harvested anymore. No need to say that I filled my pockets with the walnuts still laying on the ground. Pretty good stuff, and a good way to reload energy after an exhausting run. One of the foxes This is one of the 2 foxes that they shot that morning (the guy on the right is one of the successful shooters). This thing seems so small compared with the damage and havoc they cause in the farms among the poultry. They're known to kill all the hens of a given farm and taking away only one of them for food. The fur seemed very delicate and beautiful but I didn't dare touch it because the animal is said to carry some diseases. Unlike the roe deers, the hunters wrap the dead foxes in plastic bags before putting them in the trunk Filling glasses of Kir Frankly, I'd been waiting for this moment much of the morning, the run through the woods had been quite exhausting, I lacked exercise and I was soon peeling off layers of clothes as the temperature soon became very fair. We all met again in the hunters' building at the edge of the village for the traditional apéritif that closes the hunting. I don't drink Kir very often, but that's one of the occasions where I make an exception. The white wine comes from a 5-liter bib, it's probably a Sauvignon from a nearby winery, and in these occasions I'm not very curious about where it comes from, I just enjoy the satisfaction of few glasses shared with the village hunters, whom I begin to know better now. Along the makeshift bar counter, the hunters chat about the day events or other issues and it's all casual and unpretentious. One interesting thing I heard was remarks about why gamey (like feasants and hares) had vanished from areas (not the ones we were in that day) they had been hunting in for years. It happened almost overnight, they said, from one year to the next. Several of these hunters, who are not people involved in organic issues as far as I know, were convinced that the cause was new chemical treatments used in the crops of this area.

Comments

[Aaron]

Wonderful post. Thanks for sharing.

It's so much more authentic than the only other fox hunting education I had received up until now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXT7thyvhcs

[Bertrand]

Great one ! The slowest dog wins ! And the fox here is not very politically correct : he reads Fox News....