Disappearing Foxes

I don’t know whether it’s connected with the fur trade, but here in West Suffolk, since the ban on fox-hunting, all of the foxes seem to have disappeared.

I should say that I live on a 100 hectare thoroughbred stud, that I walk extensively. As a countryman, I know the signs of foxes and in the past year there have been virtually none. In that time, the rabbit population seems to have increased to compensate, due to the lack of their main predator.

Could this be because as our foxes are rabies-free, they are worth quite a bit in Europe as pelts? And of course now they have no value for sport.