Year Of The Fox 2

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Year of the Fox 2

September

The fox cubs are now almost full-grown, and apparently indistinguishable from their parents, though a trained eye would be able to tell the difference. The signal that the family is beginning to break up can usually be heard and, if you’re in the right place at the right time, observed. Fruit will be still high on the foxes’ diet and the sub adults will now start to forage alone. It's in this month that the foxes become more vocal which I believe could be due in part to two reasons - they are in the process of dispersing whilst trying to maintain contact with parents and siblings, or the resident foxes are becoming more hostile to their own offspring.

October

More people see a fox for the first time in this month, suggesting maybe that it’s a fox in the process of dispersing. Many of the foxes born this year will die under the wheels of a car, or snared etc., for they are crossing unfamiliar terrain. As is the case in most months of the year, on warm wet nights the foxes will spend a lot of their time hunting earthworms.

November

Even this early the vixen will start to investigate earths in preparation for the New Year. Often she will select two to three earths and this, I feel, is done so when the new cubs are born if one earth is disturbed in any way she will move them onto another. Although a lot of aggressive encounters can be heard it will still be possible to observe the young foxes playing. Foxes will start to forage in quiet areas from 6.00pm onwards.

December

With the mating season approaching, foxes will now be actively defending their territories. The triple bark often followed by a scream can be heard frequently. It's this call that leads many to believe the foxes are killing cats. Often the police will also be called out in the belief that someone is being attacked. The territory borders are now showing increasing evidence of fox activity, and the musky smell of foxes is evident.

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