The tables were turned on the animal food chain when chickens killed a young fox smelling blood in France.
It happened overnight at an agricultural school in Brittany, north-west France
“Every morning, we visit the henhouse to check that everything is okay,” explained Pascal Daniel, head of farming at Lycée du Gros Chêne.
“And there, in a corner, we found a dead fox. The chickens were very lively, there was a herd instinct and they pecked him to death.”
Daniel said the hens spent the whole day outside and only went inside at night, which is when the fox had launched the attack.
The fox had got trapped inside because the exit gates automatically lock when the light falls below a certain level.
The predator, aged six or seven months, then became the prey, added Daniel, as the chickens delivered their revenge.
Daniel said the last time a fox had entered the agricultural school’s henhouse — around a year ago — it had been a less happy ending for the chickens.
