[HesterF]

Just wondering! My garden is full of foxes and badgers at night - judging by the poo everywhere. So no doubt my cats are out there with them. And if a fox can pick off a goose, they're clearly capable of taking something the size of a cat. So why don't they? Is it just that in nature it's not good to eat other predators food chain wise?

H

[bigchicken]

Foxes are sly cunning opportunists but not particularly stupid and will avoid a fight if they can and a cat will give them a very good fight. Mr fox has to be fit to hunt so will avoid any chance of being injured having said this some cats do get taken by foxes most probably I'll cats. I would think a badger would be to slow if it fancied a munch on a cat, both will eat a dead road kill cat. My big lurcher will not go near our cat and he is ten times her size, it's not just teeth it's the claws.

[oor wullie]

Animals understand that in the wild being injured usually means being unable to survive.  Even animals that we think of as top predators will choose the safer kill if they have a choice.  I have heard of eagles trying to take dogs but they would only do that if it was the only option short of starving to death because the dog might kill the eagle - given the choice they will go for carrion every time - it is easier and safer.

Try strangling a cat*, you will probably succeed but not before finding yourself covered in your own blood. 
I addition if a cat sees you as a threat you will struggle to catch it.
It is just not worth the injuries and hassle when a fox or badger could catch a frog or a baby rabbit or find something in a bin.

*or perhaps I should say "imagine what would happen if you tried to strangle a cat"

[Mammyshaz]

The cats are out hunting too and are much smaller and quicker than a fox. They probably see the fox like an unknown dog and avoid them. More often than not if a dog chases a cat the cat gets away over or under somewhere a dog cannot reach.
And, as above comments, the fox is after the easy option.

[MikeM]

foxes do take cats. Mrs M has lost them to foxes before. However, a fox will always go for an easy meal 1st, it would have to be hungry to go after a cat.

[Still playing with tractors]

An interesting question is why foxes will not touch a dead fox, needless to say they are quite happy with most dead things?

[Bumblebear]

The carnivore eating a carnivore thing isn't generally done in nature I don't think.  Perhaps that's a reason?

[MikeM]

there are lots of examples of carnivores eating carnivores. I've seen footage of lions killing and eating smaller cats, hyenas, etc, Wolves eating coyotes, crocs eating snakes, snakes eating crocs. The only reason smaller carnivores don't form the staple diet of a larger one is that they are not as numerous as herbivores.

[HesterF]

Interestingly I spotted a clip on MSN yesterday of cat vs. fox. Cat was almost identical to one of mine - big ginger tom, fox was a sad looking specimen. Both on top of a wall, fox wanted to get past cat. Cat refused to budge, fox tried again, cat went for fox who turned tail and ran. So good job cat! Except mine is currently asleep on a chair. Now if only I could get them to keep the badger off my veges (he's worked his way through the peas and beans and is moving onto the sweetcorn)......

[shygirl]

i was thinking this this morning as 3 cats have gone missing, so wondering if maybe a fox took it. there has been a tame fox around before.

[feldar]

My hubby remembers the days when he was a nipper, that his father and grandfather would always bait a fox trap with a dead cat. He said there was nothing better to bring foxes in while they waited with the guns.
Thankfully my OH isn't in to using cats as bait. He doesn't particuarly like cats, but he's not that barbaric.
But in those days cats were common place on farms and with no birth control for them, it was one way of controlling the cat and fox population in one hit.

[bazzais]

Is there a carnivore wouldn't doesnt eat another carnivore?

[bazzais]

I think cats are too quick to be honest - its not an impossibility - but cats are not exactly slow and they can jump a damn lot higher.

[Penninehillbilly]

a few years ago our little cat about 7 yr old, went out. tried calling her in 10 mins later (it was about 6pm, new years eve), never saw her again, she NEVER went far, had a little hidey hole near the house, would 'go' just in the field near the house, might occasionaly follow us down the field a way, but never on her own. EVERYBODY local said 'fox'.

[devonlad]

our gorgeous little cat disappeared almost 2 weeks ago. she was always around so unlikely she would have moved house or wandered off- run over is of course possible but we don't live on or near a road- we have been thinking that predation is a strong possibility- our money's on badgers as they're everywhere but a fox can't be ruled out either