Red Fox

courtesy of Malene

The Red Fox Vulpes vulpes is long associated with the countryside and rural life, more recently though they have become more than common in our cities.

Foxes are members of the canine family and share many charatastics with domestic dogs. They show an intelligent mind and can learn behaviour, but always must be considered wild.

Opportunist omnivores they eat anything they can find or hunt. In June 2010 an urban fox found its way into a house, up the stairs and into a bedroom with where two babies were sleeping. To a fox a baby is smaller than a goose and a lot less trouble, the fox acted on its instincts.

  • Risks

    Since June 2010 the reality of what foxes actually are has dawned on many people. The Fantastic Mr Fox written about by Dahl resembles little of the opportunistic hunter a fox is..

    Will my child be safe in the back garden with foxes around? If you place a hungry predator in a room with a ball of flesh smaller than some of its other prey items, no.

    Will this type of incident happen again? If you place a hungry predator in a room with a ball of flesh smaller than some of its other prey items, yes.

    We do not wish to vilify foxes as they are beautiful and charasmatic creatures, however we urge people to view them as what they are, predators. If you have something of a suitable size that they could kill and eat it, you should keep it away from foxes.

    Can foxes kill cats? Yes. Its not known how often this occurs as cats do tend to disappear of their own volition

    If they can enter a chicken run they will kill as many of the birds as they can, usually all of them. This is not evil or wasteful behaviour, if given the time the fox will take every bird away and cache them for later - a survival technique.

  • Treatment

    Trapping is the prefered method of control in urban areas. Using specially designed fox traps local foxes can be removed relatively easily in most cases.

    In rural locations lamping with a high powered rifle is a very effective way to remove problem foxes.

  • Life Cycle

    Vixens give birth to between four and six cubs, she will then stay with them for the next two weeks at least. Her food is brought to her by the dog Fox. Occasionally a vixen from a previous litter will still be with mother and help out. In this way small packs of foxes may occur.

    The fox cubs begin exploring their surroundings at a month old and will be be fully grown after six. Spindle legged cubs are often the victims of traffic incidents having not yet learnt to be road savvy.

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