Urban foxes

We used to live in Enfield, North London and had a railway line at the back of our garden. One night we heard a terrific noise in the kitchen- a large fox had chased our cat through the cat flat and had the cat cornered near the cooker. When it saw DH it smashed its' way out of the cat flap back into the garden.
We now live in a more rural area and seldom see or hear foxes.

Oh dear , once more I am in the minority here --- more people and children get bitten , mauled and killed by dogs everyday, why don't we cull them?

Fox hunting was inhumane and cruel, and anyone who can take pleasure in seeing one ripped to pieces is obviously sick, it had nothing whatsoever to do with keeping the fox population down - check the facts - foxes will only breed if their territory allows them to do so, so by killing them you just free up breeding territory.

Yes, rogue fox may have killed a dog if it felt cornered or threatened - but that is canine behavior, sadly I have witnessed a dog being killed by a lurcher in a local park. I have lived with rural and urban foxes all my life, and really cannot understand what the hysterics are about - plus foxes will kill the rats at a push, although their diet also consists of slugs , beetles berries etc - oh and take always of course

Oh, and of course we now see foxes more in rural areas since the hunting ban - its not that is more them ( see wildlife trust stats ), its just they are not terrified of being seen in the open anymore !!

Interesting to read your post susieb and I am wondering if you feel the same about rats as you do about foxes?

susieb, more people get bitten or mauled by dogs because dogs live with humans so their behaviour depends on their owners and their environment. You cannot compare dog and fox behaviour because dogs are domesticated and foxes are not.

I have to disagree with you about foxes no longer being terrified to be seen in the open in rural areas. In the countryside they are shy and don't venture into human habitation unless injured or starving.

susieb755 you may be in the minority but you are not alone

Perhaps if humans could learn not to be as free with discarding food scraps, uneaten McDonalds, etc, keep waste food securely binned, and generally be a bit tidier there would be fewer urban foxes, rats and feral pigeons.

Perhaps there is a link between the density of the human population and that of the creatures that live from our careless leavings.

On the north west news tonight, Wythenshawe hospital has put out a warning that a fox has been seen in the car park near the maternity unit - cut to film of a fox slinking past parked cars - probably a library clip - warning people to take care.

I can imagine new mums and those to be are now in a bit of a panic, poor things. Why on earth doesn't the hospital get in the pest controllers to deal with it? I suspect it's one of those announcements intended to avert possible litigation, rather than sorting the problem out.

I'm sure there are many foxes living near the car park of Wythenshawe Hospital, and every hospital in the country. Im not sure why anyone would be worried about this.

When I worked nights shifts I saw many foxes on my travels. They cheered me up on those long, lonely shifts. Live and let live.

I agree that a fox in a car park is hardly worthy of a news item and just panics people for no reason. My point was that if the hospital really thinks they have a problem then they should deal with it.

I also like the way that night time gives a different perspective. I love the colonies of rabbits that live on the roundabouts near Manchester airport and who are never visible in the day time.

vegas, I like your style

Question: who else, apart from me, knew that earth worms are a large (yes, I do mean large) part of a fox's diet?

Along with the bulbs that they insist on digging up, little blighters. Why do you think I feed them; I want some flowers come spring.

Well, I suppose new parents leaving the unit could put their baby, in the car seat, down while they opened up the car. Better safe than sorry!

This needs to be taken seriously.

The report I read (in the Telegraph) said that the fox was in the lobby of the maternity unit, not the car park.
I have to stick my hand up and say foxes give me the creeps.

My image of foxes was a bit like you get in children's picture books, fluffy and quite cute. I hadn't seen a real one close up.

However, recently I glanced out of my study window to see a dog fox trotting down our road, right in the middle, in no hurry. He was big and skinny and looked quite scary. I wouldn't have wanted to get in his way.

Still love foxes though. I like to think we have a few large animals running around wild in this country (no wolves nowadays - or were they just in Scotland?)

Petallus
"I like to think we have a few large animals running around wild in this country"

I have no problem with them running round wild in the country.
I just don't want them in my street, my garden, or coming into my house, in the same way that I don't want rats, mice or cockroaches in my house either.
And when they're in the country, I'd like them not to savage livestock too.

Enjoy your 6 weeks off GN - how will you cope

Thanks. I'm sure I shan't find it easy not even being able to lurk.

Will be interested to see what impact influx of Saga refugees has had when I return.

I am sorry to beg to differ.

It is all very well saying the fox has an eating habit that does not include eating prey. The fact is the fox does eat prey. The fact is the fox will kill for savage amusement. Have any of you seen a field where sheep are lying dying after a fox/foxes have got at them. They are enduring a horrible death, shivering with shock, bleeding and might have it's intestines showing. I can assure you you would cry looking at it.

Have any of you seen a chicken coop after a fox/foxes have savagely attacked it. Heads are ripped off and perhaps only one chicken is taken away to feed on. It is horrible.

If a domestic dog attacked and killed sheep, chickens and domestic rabbits or other dogs and killed them everyone would say it has to be destroyed.

Foxes are very nice to look at but if cornered or hungry will do what it does best. It is also ridiculous to differentiate between a country fox and an urban fox.

Really bad taste www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/

Have not read all of the above so not sure if some one has already said it, but if a dog bites a child it would probably be put down, and no one would be up it arms about that.....

I was surprised at myself for laughing at the Matt cartoon - don't think I'd find it funny though if it were my four week-old grandson who had to be wrestled from the jaws of the fox.

pogs, if anyone said foxes to not eat prey, I missed that. Of course they eat prey; they are carnivores. Earthworms are prey – quite meaty and full of protein – which is why foxes eat them.

Yes, I have seen what a fox can do to chickens. A fox killed all our chickens and took all of them away except for one, which was too big to fit through the hole in the fence. The chickens were killed because DD and DH, whose responsibility they were, failed to look after the chickens properly (forgot to shut the coop door at night).

The fox was merely doing what foxes do. It wasn't doing anything disgusting or "wrong".

Around here there is a lot of sheep farming and farmers do shoot foxes and dogs who harm their livestock. Harm includes "worrying" the sheep evennif no obvious physical damage has been done. I think this is because a stressed ewe can miscarry, or might abandon her lambs.

All of which is fine and how life works.

do not...

Luckily our foxes are more rural than urban and do a great job of recycling chicken carcasses and the like that we leave out for them. They even have their own bowl and when they approach it the security light comes on and sightings of them give us a lot of pleasure. Our foxes are shy creatures and only come out after dark but have been seen very early morning ambling down the road.

The foxes deal with the meat leftovers and our wormery takes the unwanted fruit and veg.

Anyway, how do you cull foxes? Not by poisoned bate that's for sure or a lot of beloved pets would disappear. Do we arm ourselves with shotguns and blast away? And what about all the attacks made by so-called domestic dogs. These far outweigh fox attacks.

Wheelie bins and no black plastic bags in our area so essentially no messy problems. More research is needed as to what attracts foxes to babies. There must be some sort of trigger.

A baby is a small mammal to a fox, snailspeak.

Looking out of a train window today, somewhere between Banbury and Leamington Spa, I spotted a fox streaking across a snow-covered field. Definitely a rural fox in broad daylight.