At home with the urban fox

Foxes have hit the headlines again – this time for an attack on two nine-month old twins as they slept in their upstairs bedroom. Yet again it put the media in a spin over this highly controversial animal.

It doesn't seem that long since the Hunting Bill was going through parliament and these red rogues were the daily focus of national debate.

Calls for the Bill to be reversed have now increased, although, right or wrong, this will have little consequence on the escalating population of town foxes.

It is important to remember that incidents like this are extremely rare. But where foxes are concerned, it is hard to stem the hysteria.

Even noteworthy wildlife experts have joined in. They claim that it was unlikely a fox could cause such harm and have questioned the judgment of the parents. Of course it is unlikely to have been a coincidence that the fox was in the girls' bedroom so soon after the attack. I personally suspect it was a vixen with cubs nearby. She would have been under a lot of pressure to provide food for her family and possibly heard the babies crying, which to her would have signalled a distress call. Distress calls from any mammal or bird attract predators. They come running thinking they are going to get an easy meal.

I often imitate a rabbit squeal to trick foxes to come close to me so that I can photograph them for my paintings.

This fox was probably used to sneaking in and out of houses, pinching cat food or being fed by well wishing neighbours, who think it fun to have a fox in the house.

Just before the news of this story broke, I remember talking to an elderly man from London who phoned me to order some greetings cards featuring one of my fox paintings. While he was giving me his details he told me that two foxes had just wandered through his patio doors into his living room. One curled up on the carpet in a shaft of sunlight and the other one came to him as he sat in his armchair for a dog biscuit. This man lived alone and was largely housebound. The foxes were company for him and clearly gave him so much pleasure.

As a wildlife artist, I have always been fascinated by the sight of a fox slinking through the countryside. They are essentially elusive, which is part of their appeal. Truly wild foxes are virtually impossible to study at close quarters. One slight whiff of human scent, or click of a camera, and they're off. To make the task more challenging still, the vixen regularly moves her cubs if she is disturbed.

In contrast, urban foxes have become startlingly bold. A couple of years ago a friend of mine called to say that his friend's daughter had fox cubs under a workshop in her garden in Huntingdon.

This woman was due to set off on holiday with her family in a few days time. "Can you come tomorrow?" she asked as I spoke to her on the telephone for the first time. In spite of the fact that I had never met her, she decided that I could stay in her house while she was away on holiday, which was exceptionally generously-spirited of her.

I wouldn't be studying wild foxes of course, but it would be the next best thing. Town foxes are used to human scent and not as camera shy as their country cousins. So, without hesitating, I headed for Huntingdon.

The family lived in a row of terrace houses, with a long thin garden with a shed at the bottom, where the foxes had their den.

Ten metres in front of the shed was a wooden Wendy house, belonging to their twin girls. With a cordless saw, I quickly cut out a new "window for the girls" into the end wall of the Wendy house, and settled down to watch the fox family.

Throughout the next week, I photographed them from dawn to dusk, spending up to 16 hours a day squashed into a space designed for youngsters. It gave me a fascinating insight into the daily habits of foxes.

The vixen spent a lot of time grooming her cubs. One day she found a tick inside one of the cub's ears. She was determined that this tick was coming out, no matter how much fuss the cub made. She pinned the cub down with one paw and nibbled at the tick, occasionally taking a bit of fluff off by mistake.

Eventually the tick came out and the vixen loosened her grip on the cub. It retaliated by pulling the vixen's tail. All the other cubs disappeared for safety under the shed, for fear that they would be the next victim of the nit nurse.

Moments like these would have been so difficult to witness in country foxes. The vixen's diet was also much more varied than I expected. She was particularly partial to adult blackbirds, sparrows and collared doves. I was surprised to discover that she was fast enough to catch these flighty birds. In fact she was hunting more like a cat and when, during my stay, I heard the neighbours complaining that a cat was pilfering pet rabbits in the area, I suspected the vixen as the more likely culprit.

One day, I moved an old fencing panel that was on the ground near the Wendy house and noticed some mice runs underneath it. The vixen quickly cottoned onto them too and soon followed the scent to a nest of pink baby mice. She caught the mice one by one and offered them to her cubs, but I think they were too full of rabbit. So the vixen stashed them, digging a little hole for each mouse and burying it like a squirrel would do with a nut.

Later that evening, she excavated the mice and offered them up as supper to the delighted cubs. Most evenings, when it became too dark to photograph, I would unfurl myself from the cramped Wendy house and walk down to the river which was a couple of streets away. Often I would spot the vixen doing her rounds, navigating busy roads and people walking dogs.

She knew the territory well and took shortcuts across gardens so that she always beat me home. It was fascinating to discover that she had a routine you could set your clock to.

In that week I saw and learnt more about foxes than in life-time of watching them in the countryside. Urban foxes have to face up to very different pressures than their country cousins: they need to learn to negotiate busy main roads and have adapted their diets to suit.

But, so far, they've never had a gun pointed at them. After the latest uproar this might be set to change. Personally I suspect, however, love them or loathe it; the wily fox is here to stay.

www.RobertEFuller.com

CW 14/8/10