Dead fox found on island with no known population of animal

The young female animal was discovered in Kirkwall next to the Balfour Hospital on Tuesday.

Dead fox found on Orkney with no known population of animal — The council confirmed the discovery was reported to police. iStock

Andrew Stewart

10th Sep 2024

Posted in

A dead fox has been discovered in Orkney, which is believed to have no known population of the animal.

The young female animal was discovered in Kirkwall next to the Balfour Hospital on Tuesday by NHS staff as they arrived for work.

Orkney Islands Council removed the animal and took it to a local vet where a post-mortem showed it had likely been hit by a vehicle and had been dead for at least a day.

The council confirmed the discovery was reported to police.

The young female animal was discovered in Kirkwall next to the Balfour Hospital on Tuesday LDRS

Katie Walker who works at the hospital told the LDRS she was “surprised and confused as to why a fox would be on the pavement in the middle of Kirkwall.”

Rhona Ley, a vet who was involved in the process of carrying out a post-mortem, said: “It wasn’t freshly dead.

“There were changes there that suggest it’s been dead for a wee while, probably due to a road traffic accident.

“It has at least three broken legs but they were broken after it died. When the legs are broken before death they get a lot of bruising but there was nothing.”

Orkney isn’t known to be home to the animals but a dead fox was found on the island in 2007, with the belief that it died on the mainland.

It was thought to have been brought to Orkney, and then dumped on the roadside.

Orkney Islands Council’s Trading Standards Manager, Gary Foubister said: “It is a serious offence to release non-native species, dead or alive.

“Anyone with information should get in touch with Police Scotland on 101.”