The baby bird, the fox kit, and the fawn are likely to be dead within three months of being born -- such is the natural mortality of most wildlife.
Tennyson noted that "nature is red in tooth and claw," but in truth he was an optimist. A great deal of wildlife never lives long enough to see a predator.
More often than not young wildlife simply dies alone, sick and shattered in the hedge, tree den or burrow, the victim of starvation or vehicle impact, disease or parasite, poor parenting, or exposure to the elements.
Rudyard Kipling got it about right when& he noted that in the modern world the most common Blood Sport is not the ancient art of the chase, but haphazard driving by people almost totally unaware of what they have done. As he notes in that great poem, "The Fox Meditates":
When men grew shy of hunting stag,The Car put up an average bag
of twenty dead per diem.
Then every road was made a rink
for coroners to sit on
And so began, in skid and stink,
the real blood-sport of Britain!
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