The foxes have been restless for days and keep me awake at night wandering around in the gardens… I wonder what is going on, why they make such noise, I think it’s probably a territory thing but I can’t find any info. What I did find was very interesting to read:
Wildlife facts: Urban Foxes
Foxes have made a success of living with people. This is not based upon their mythical cunning, but rather their ability to adapt to a range of changing conditions.
The Move to the Cities
Foxes moved into urban areas after World War I due to a change in people’s lifestyles. The new transport systems allowed people to work in one place and to live in another, leading to the building of suburban housing in one rural areas. Rural foxes quickly urbanised, taking advantage the food and shelter provided in these new relatively large gardens, from compost heaps, bird tables and garden buildings. Now accustomed to living so near to people, successive generations have spread inwards towards the city centre. Today there are more opportunities of food and shelter for foxes in towns and cities than in the surrounding countryside, with the destruction of hedgerows, woods and wild field margins.
Family Life
They live in family groups – a dog fox and vixen producing one litter of about 4 cubs a year. It is also common for one or two other vixens to help raise the family – usually either the daughters or sisters of the breeding vixen. They communicate through calls, which may be very loud in the breeding season, scent marking, facial expressions, and body postures that are very similar to dogs. Hunting throughout the family territory, these opportunist feeders, have a varied diet ranging from fruit to mice. On average, scavenged food forms some 36% of their diet, with a large amount of this deliberately put out to attract them. It is commonly, but wrongly believed that urban foxes feed largely on the contents of dustbins which they have raided – these are more often disturbed by cats and dogs.
Threats to Foxes
The number of urban foxes remains about the same despite approximately 60% of the population dying in a year. Nearly half of these deaths are due to car accidents. However, injured animals often survive, lying under a garden shed until the bones start to knit together. Once the fox is able to feed again it will soon regain its lost weight. Generally it is best not to move an injured or sick animal, rather to put out food for it each night. A fox taken in for treatment has only a slim chance of survival. It will probably be driven out from its territory by a new tenant. This “do not disturb” policy is true for supposedly abandoned fox cubs. A vixen normally leaves her cubs for long periods of time, especially as they get older. The rearing of truly orphaned cubs may be taken over by other members of the fox family group.
Friend or Foe?
Most people derive pleasure from having foxes in their neighbourhood and they are certainly a benefit, feeding on rats, mice and feral pigeons. Most encounters with other large animals, such as cats, result in the two animals ignoring each other, or the cat coming off best. They are only a threat to small family pets such as rabbits. Most fox diseases are not transferable to pets or people. Should rabies enter Britain, The Wildlife Trusts would support the vaccination of foxes, and not their killing, as an appropriate means of control.
Spotting your Fox
You are most likely to see foxes at dawn or dusk as they are often night hunters, spending their days in a sheltered, secluded spot either above or below ground. Male foxes, called dog foxes, are not much larger then cats weighing about 6.5kg (14lbs) and standing about 35cm (14″) at the shoulder. Female foxes, called vixens, are slightly smaller. Their colours may vary slightly form those shown, and during the spring and summer months they may look extremely scruffy as they moult.
These wild animals provide a welcome reminder in our urban world of the realities of nature. They hunt, breed, play and die in the “wilderness” of our “backyard”. Adaptable opportunists, they have learnt to cope with the world that we have changed.
