"A few years ago the hooray huntin' Henrys in all their silly regalia, horns a-hootin', were on the far side of the field between us and Widemouth Bay..Meanwhile, a lovely big girl fox was foraging around just under our garden in the same field, occasionally glancing nonchalantly up at the fools with the hounds a couple of hundred yards away. I concluded that the cunning little vixen had more brains than all those dogs and men in red put together. Very heartening!"

A tale from the keyboard of "Biologist" Shaw from the heart of Kernow's hunting heartland just outside Bude.

Ehmmm Shaw, hate to point his out to you but the situation you describe has got nothing whatsoever to do with the brains, or lack of them, of any of the participants - more to do with wind and weather conditions at the time and the topography of the field in question. My guess would be that the vixen was down-wind of the hunters and the topography of the field was such that the fox could not be seen. The vixen wasn't "occasionally glancing nonchalantly up at the fools with the hounds a couple of hundred yards away." she was scenting them as they were up wind of her - no movement on their part, so no need for her to interrupt what she was doing.

Give you an idea:

1: Roe Deer - sitting on post while hunting Elg in the eastern part of Norway a mature Doe crossed and stood 3 metres away from where myself and the land-owner were sitting - because of the wind direction she had absolutely no idea that we were even there.

2: Elg - Posted by what was obviously a well used track I had a young elg cow and two calves pass me so close I could have reached out and touched them - because of the wind conditions they had no idea that I was there.

3: Dog Fox (rural) - came and sat 10 feet away from me. I could tell he was uneasy about something but he couldn't figure it out to identify what was causing him his unease. He shifted to about 20 feet away this whole process lasting about 20 to 30 minutes, when having rested he wandered off into the forest - In all that time he hadn't a clue that I was there. When asked by a couple of farmers in the hunting team why I hadn't shot him, my reply was "Why? I can't eat him and he was only out there engaged in exactly the same activity as myself."