In what is fast becoming something on an annual event, the BBC reported on the 5th March 2012 that “a fox believed to be the biggest killed in Britain was shot” on an Aberdeenshire farm.
Jonathan Reynolds, senior research scientist at the shooting industry’s Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT), commented: “We don’t know why they are getting bigger, but one possible explanation is that they are getting better fed in urban areas.”
So which urban area was the fox shot? Well it turns out to have been on a farm in Rothiemay. A quick look at the OS map of the region shows just how urbanised Rothiemay is.
Now I’m no scientist but looking at the map there doesn’t seem to be a McDonald’s for miles, but plenty of pheasant shooting areas.
If Mr Reynolds is a ‘senior research scientist’, we loved to hear what wacky theories the junior researchers at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust come up with.
