The Fantastic Mrs. Fox

Over the last couple of years we have been lucky enough to have fox cubs playing in our garden at night time. The leash of foxes usually consists of one adult female and two or three small cubs, but this year there are more than that.

Last night as we watched TV I suddenly spied out of the corner of my eye movement at the top of our garden, just in front of our shed. I looked up and saw 4 fox cubs suddenly dart over to one side of the garden and through the bush into the neighbour’s garden. As we both sat there waiting to see if they’d come back the adult fox ran back into our garden followed by seven small cubs!

We had previously thought that they lived underneath our shed but with such a large group this now doesn’t seem possible as there can’t be that much room under there for them. But we’ve never seen them come from anywhere else except from behind our shed, and whenever they get startled they always head in that direction as well.

The mummy fox is quite agile as she has managed to jump up and over the 6ft fence we have and has also been spotted standing on top of the shed on other occasions! And for her to bring up seven cubs is a really good achievement!

Later that evening we managed to catch a couple of them on video as they played around on our patio:

One thing we’ve contemplated doing, as there are quite a few of them, is to feed the foxes. While providing them with food gives them a better chance of surviving, and allows us to view them more closer, it does have its downside as well. There is the possibility that the foxes become dependant upon the food and then stop scavenging altogether. So we would have to strike a balance between these to ensure the foxes survive!