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Urban Foxes/Rural Legend

Lutzman said:
Exactly how many wolves can you fit in a Volvo?

And do they have to wear seatbelts?

Bullseye said:
In Sweden they would probably have to have up to date rabies and hardpad innoculations as well,as well as little sidelights on the tips of their ears,sorry Chigrima just a joke:D


No insult taken. :) I'm a bit curious myself about that "wolfes in a volvo" idea. They probably used their fancy official cars. And they probably paid the bill for cleaning the car with taxpayers money, the ba***rds...
 
And now a blue fox.

Out-foxed

Britain:

A mysterious blue fox has been spotted at a Travelodge in Greenwich, the News Shopper reports

A worried guest spotted and photographed the mysterious creature while at the bar. Scott Farnell wrote: “What’s going on here then? Lenny Henry wouldn’t stand for this?”

Luckily, a man in the bar was able to tame the fox with crisps and it was escorted away from the hotel.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/...reds-as-bridezillas-clash-at-fair-308899.html
 
Blue? Probably fell into a portaloo or something.
 
Typing "blue fox" into Google Images doesn't get many photos, but you do get a ton of cartoons, most of them amateur-looking.
 
I bet the fox used the microwave before it's snooze.

A fox was found snoozing on top of a microwave after it snuck into a south-west London home.

The animal came in through the cat flap and smashed plant pots before curling up on top of the appliance. Kim Fryer, from Mitcham, called the RSPCA, after her daughter found the fox in the early hours of the morning. Mrs Fryer said she could tell "there was something wrong" with it but after being checked over by vets it was released back into the area.

Ms Fryer, who has five cats and a dog, said: "She put the light on and one eye opened but he didn't move.

"A couple of my plants were smashed and there was mud everywhere."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-46699818
 
I'm not sure which is harder to believe:-

That foxes were (is this even reported any more?) packed into vans in cities and driven out to somewhere rural to be left in a befuddled daze. How would you even herd them up? Pick them off with dart guns?

That a fox can massacre dozens of a farmer's lambs in a single season, as has been claimed a couple of times in the press in recent years. Was it armed with an uzi, or something?

Or that foxes are invading houses and attacking children because...well, just because. It honestly feels like every occurrence of the word 'dog' has been tipexed out and replaced by 'fox' in reports like this.

That, as has been noted earlier in the thread, these kinds of stories usually materialise when hunting's being discussed, doesn't help their credibility one bit. I suspect the only reason they retain any currency is our sensationalistic media; the fuss they made over one alleged fox attack, the BBC included, bordered on the absurd.

You'd think vulpes vulpes was a demon in red fur, a maliciously cunning master of wickedness, instead of simply being more resourceful, adaptable and resilient than most. Folklore persists, it seems; it's just changing forms to suit the times.
 
I'm not sure which is harder to believe:-
That a fox can massacre dozens of a farmer's lambs in a single season, as has been claimed a couple of times in the press in recent years. Was it armed with an uzi, or something?

Or that foxes are invading houses and attacking children because...well, just because.

“Red foxes may on occasion prey on lambs. Usually, lambs targeted by foxes tend to be physically weakened specimens, but not invariably. Lambs belonging to small breeds, such as Blackface, are more vulnerable...”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox#Livestock_and_pet_predation

“Today the only wild animals remaining as a tangible threat to lambs in the British Isles are the red fox, badger, and predatory birds. If the head's bitten off the carcass, it is usually a fox.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_sheep_predation#British_Isles

“In 2014, a survey of 650 Welsh farmers found 75 per cent had seen an increase in the number of lambs killed by foxes since the Hunting Act was introduced, while 95 per cent lost money as a result of fox attacks.”

https://www.fginsight.com/news/news...g-act-change-after-foxes-kill-115-lambs-21429

AN EXASPERATED farmer has called for “a common sense approach” after losing 25 lambs to foxes in only a matter of weeks.

Meirion Jones, 67, was born and raised on Cwm Mynach Isa farm, Bontddu, and believes this year is “one of the worst ever” for losing his livestock to countryside predators.
“It’s awful, every night in our bedroom we can hear the ewes screaming and running down the field, we’re just helpless to stop it,” said Meirion.

“We know the foxes are attacking the newborns – we lost one Tuesday morning – but we can’t stop them.

“This is my livelihood. I may lose as many as 50 or 60 lambs at this rate, that’s a big percentage of my stock. It makes you wonder whether it’s worth going to the trouble any more.”

http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/arti...illed by foxes&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2017

... And many, many more.

“The mother of nine-month-old twin girls has described her "living nightmare" after her daughters were apparently mauled by a fox as they slept in their cots in east London.

Lola and Isabella Koupparis were attacked at about 2200 BST on Saturday.

A police source said the fox apparently entered the house through an open ground-floor door before attacking the twins in an upstairs room.

"I put on the light, I saw the fox, it just looked at me and it wasn't even scared of me.

"I started screaming as I realised Lola was also covered in blood."

Both girls suffered arm injuries and one is thought to have facial injuries.
The twins remain in a serious but stable condition.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/10251349

A fox has attacked a baby as it lay sleeping beside its mother on a sofa in their sitting room.

Louis Day, who is only 14 weeks old, was left covered with blood and crying with pain as the fox grabbed his head after creeping in through the open french window of the family's home in Kent.

"I had only been there a second when I heard Louis scream and then Sue scream as well," Mr Day, 44, said. "By the time I got back in the room, the fox was sitting there, just looking at me. I did not see him grab Louis, but the baby was covered in blood.

"I chased the fox out - it was sat by the door, just looking at me.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-125763/Parents-tell-horror-fox-attacks-sleeping-baby.html

A woman told of her panic after she woke “covered in blood” to find a fox in her bedroom after the animal had apparently savaged her arm.

Jodie Nailard said she woke up startled at about 5.30am on Sunday after feeling a sharp pain in her bicep and discovered the four-legged culprit lingering at the end of her bed in Clapham, south London.

The 22-year-old said the fox was sent flying on to the floor after she sat bolt upright after noticing her arm was bleeding.

Jodie suffered six puncture wounds to her bicep...

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...1tANW4NTsMBIk9YYzQSqJvyL1JNigVdV&guccounter=1

But hey, you can always just play them a song:

2-69.jpg


maximus otter
 
“Red foxes may on occasion prey on lambs. Usually, lambs targeted by foxes tend to be physically weakened specimens, but not invariably. Lambs belonging to small breeds, such as Blackface, are more vulnerable...”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox#Livestock_and_pet_predation

“Today the only wild animals remaining as a tangible threat to lambs in the British Isles are the red fox, badger, and predatory birds. If the head's bitten off the carcass, it is usually a fox.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_sheep_predation#British_Isles

“In 2014, a survey of 650 Welsh farmers found 75 per cent had seen an increase in the number of lambs killed by foxes since the Hunting Act was introduced, while 95 per cent lost money as a result of fox attacks.”

https://www.fginsight.com/news/news...g-act-change-after-foxes-kill-115-lambs-21429

AN EXASPERATED farmer has called for “a common sense approach” after losing 25 lambs to foxes in only a matter of weeks.

Meirion Jones, 67, was born and raised on Cwm Mynach Isa farm, Bontddu, and believes this year is “one of the worst ever” for losing his livestock to countryside predators.
“It’s awful, every night in our bedroom we can hear the ewes screaming and running down the field, we’re just helpless to stop it,” said Meirion.

“We know the foxes are attacking the newborns – we lost one Tuesday morning – but we can’t stop them.

“This is my livelihood. I may lose as many as 50 or 60 lambs at this rate, that’s a big percentage of my stock. It makes you wonder whether it’s worth going to the trouble any more.”

http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=113937&headline=‘Common sense’ needed after lambs killed by foxes&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2017

... And many, many more.

“The mother of nine-month-old twin girls has described her "living nightmare" after her daughters were apparently mauled by a fox as they slept in their cots in east London.

Lola and Isabella Koupparis were attacked at about 2200 BST on Saturday.

A police source said the fox apparently entered the house through an open ground-floor door before attacking the twins in an upstairs room.

"I put on the light, I saw the fox, it just looked at me and it wasn't even scared of me.

"I started screaming as I realised Lola was also covered in blood."

Both girls suffered arm injuries and one is thought to have facial injuries.
The twins remain in a serious but stable condition.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/10251349

A fox has attacked a baby as it lay sleeping beside its mother on a sofa in their sitting room.

Louis Day, who is only 14 weeks old, was left covered with blood and crying with pain as the fox grabbed his head after creeping in through the open french window of the family's home in Kent.

"I had only been there a second when I heard Louis scream and then Sue scream as well," Mr Day, 44, said. "By the time I got back in the room, the fox was sitting there, just looking at me. I did not see him grab Louis, but the baby was covered in blood.

"I chased the fox out - it was sat by the door, just looking at me.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-125763/Parents-tell-horror-fox-attacks-sleeping-baby.html

A woman told of her panic after she woke “covered in blood” to find a fox in her bedroom after the animal had apparently savaged her arm.

Jodie Nailard said she woke up startled at about 5.30am on Sunday after feeling a sharp pain in her bicep and discovered the four-legged culprit lingering at the end of her bed in Clapham, south London.

The 22-year-old said the fox was sent flying on to the floor after she sat bolt upright after noticing her arm was bleeding.

Jodie suffered six puncture wounds to her bicep...

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...1tANW4NTsMBIk9YYzQSqJvyL1JNigVdV&guccounter=1

But hey, you can always just play them a song:

2-69.jpg


maximus otter

Werefarmers preying on lambs and children.
 
“Red foxes may on occasion prey on lambs. Usually, lambs targeted by foxes tend to be physically weakened specimens, but not invariably. Lambs belonging to small breeds, such as Blackface, are more vulnerable...”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fox#Livestock_and_pet_predation

“Today the only wild animals remaining as a tangible threat to lambs in the British Isles are the red fox, badger, and predatory birds. If the head's bitten off the carcass, it is usually a fox.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_sheep_predation#British_Isles

“In 2014, a survey of 650 Welsh farmers found 75 per cent had seen an increase in the number of lambs killed by foxes since the Hunting Act was introduced, while 95 per cent lost money as a result of fox attacks.”

https://www.fginsight.com/news/news...g-act-change-after-foxes-kill-115-lambs-21429

AN EXASPERATED farmer has called for “a common sense approach” after losing 25 lambs to foxes in only a matter of weeks.

Meirion Jones, 67, was born and raised on Cwm Mynach Isa farm, Bontddu, and believes this year is “one of the worst ever” for losing his livestock to countryside predators.
“It’s awful, every night in our bedroom we can hear the ewes screaming and running down the field, we’re just helpless to stop it,” said Meirion.

“We know the foxes are attacking the newborns – we lost one Tuesday morning – but we can’t stop them.

“This is my livelihood. I may lose as many as 50 or 60 lambs at this rate, that’s a big percentage of my stock. It makes you wonder whether it’s worth going to the trouble any more.”

http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/article.cfm?id=113937&headline=‘Common sense’ needed after lambs killed by foxes&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2017

... And many, many more.

“The mother of nine-month-old twin girls has described her "living nightmare" after her daughters were apparently mauled by a fox as they slept in their cots in east London.

Lola and Isabella Koupparis were attacked at about 2200 BST on Saturday.

A police source said the fox apparently entered the house through an open ground-floor door before attacking the twins in an upstairs room.

"I put on the light, I saw the fox, it just looked at me and it wasn't even scared of me.

"I started screaming as I realised Lola was also covered in blood."

Both girls suffered arm injuries and one is thought to have facial injuries.
The twins remain in a serious but stable condition.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/10251349

A fox has attacked a baby as it lay sleeping beside its mother on a sofa in their sitting room.

Louis Day, who is only 14 weeks old, was left covered with blood and crying with pain as the fox grabbed his head after creeping in through the open french window of the family's home in Kent.

"I had only been there a second when I heard Louis scream and then Sue scream as well," Mr Day, 44, said. "By the time I got back in the room, the fox was sitting there, just looking at me. I did not see him grab Louis, but the baby was covered in blood.

"I chased the fox out - it was sat by the door, just looking at me.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-125763/Parents-tell-horror-fox-attacks-sleeping-baby.html

A woman told of her panic after she woke “covered in blood” to find a fox in her bedroom after the animal had apparently savaged her arm.

Jodie Nailard said she woke up startled at about 5.30am on Sunday after feeling a sharp pain in her bicep and discovered the four-legged culprit lingering at the end of her bed in Clapham, south London.

The 22-year-old said the fox was sent flying on to the floor after she sat bolt upright after noticing her arm was bleeding.

Jodie suffered six puncture wounds to her bicep...

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...1tANW4NTsMBIk9YYzQSqJvyL1JNigVdV&guccounter=1

But hey, you can always just play them a song:

2-69.jpg


maximus otter

Funny thing - the farmer mentioned in the Cambrian News article is a neighbour of a Twitter contact of mine, and they painted a far from flattering picture of them. Most pertinently, the farmer used to run with a hill pack, until the Hunting Act, and seemed to be looking for any excuse to start running again. It's my belief the difficult conditions in the Welsh hills are behind the high mortality far more than foxes, who are mostly scavenging the dead.

Think about the details of these articles, note the emotive language used, note how little space is given to vulpine experts who aren't pest controllers, and you start to realise the media are far more interested in getting a reaction than being truthful. Also, a little perspective can go a long way - how many dog attacks are there a year, and how much attention do they get compared to alleged fox attacks?

For clarity, foxes are a specialist subject of mine. I've read extensively about them - Running With the Fox by David McDonald and Urban Foxes by Stephen Harris are particularly good - and have had a lot of personal experience, not all of it positive. We do lose chickens to foxes, but only on rare occasion, and it's always been dispersing animals, or ones displaced by a hunt; if they don't die on the road or at the hands of someone less tolerant, they quickly learn not to take the risk.

I don't doubt there can be issues with foxes at times, just not nearly to the extent some would have you believe. Daily Mail articles and flippant asides are not good arguments otherwise.
 
An Imelda Marcos fox.

A fox in ad leafy suburb of Berlin has been getting into the spirit of summer - by collecting flip flops.

For weeks residents of Zehlendorf were baffled that a thief was stealing their flip flops and sports shoes from their gardens at night. Finally a man spotted the culprit on a patch of wasteland, "in flagrante, carrying two blue flip flops in its mouth", the daily Tagesspiegel reports.

The fox had a hoard of over 100 shoes, but not the man's missing running shoe. The man had suspected it might be a fox after raising the matter on a neighbourhood watch website and getting complaints from other locals about a missing pair of shoes, or one missing shoe.

Tagesspiegel editor Felix Hackenbruch posted photos of the evidence on Twitter.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53612856
 
I heard what I hope was a fox last night. It sounded like death screams from a woman being mauled.

I grew up in a street with 'fox' in the name and I've seen and heard hundreds of foxes over the years.

My impression was always that they sound like babies in pain.
 
We have a fox family living nearby, visiting our yard to eat birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and even spilled bird seed. Their calls can be quite chilling, though ours sound more of a child screaming in annoying fashion.
 
I wonder if Larry the Cat keeps foxes out of No 10?

A vixen frequently spotted in the vicinity of Merrion Street appears to have left her mark on Government Buildings, where pest controllers detected “a strong smell of fox urine” in a room close to the Taoiseach’s office.

Sam the Fox came to public attention on social media after making a number of appearances near Leinster House during government formation talks last June, and has also been photographed elsewhere in the city centre.

It appears that she may have paid a visit to the Department of An Taoiseach in the course of her travels, likely gaining access through one of 72 access points that were identified by an environmental company in October 2019 as being so big that “wildlife larger than a rat could easily fit through”.

Records released under freedom of information laws show that pest controllers were struck by a strong smell of fox urine in the department during a callout in response to the discovery of a dead rat under a raised floor in the building in September 2019.

The distinct odour was detected in a cable room beside the “comms room” in the Taoiseach’s department.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40204124.html
 
Just want to post this here because there's nowhere else. This evening, I saw a fox in the woods, when out walking my mutt. I say "evening" was only about 6 so not yet dark. But in all my (cough) years, never seen a "daylight" fox so close... He was gone in a second. But definitely saw him. (ETA: When we lived in a city saw them close all the time but only through a window... not out in the wild kinda thing!)
 
On the subject of urban foxes, l forgot to mention a first-hand anecdote from a shooting buddy. He goes out foxing with a gamekeeper mate. Last year/early this year he shot a fox which had had a leg amputated and surgically stitched up. He also believes that he can tell dumped urban foxes from wild, country ones, as the urban ones seem clueless and show little fear of humans, making them easier to shoot.

l have also read more than one account on shooting forums by people who've dropped foxes which, on inspection, prove to have had surgical procedures, evident because of shaved patches with stitched surgical incisions.

maximus otter
 
Interesting anecdotal evidence.

No one preserved these bodies?

Our knowledge about vulpine surgeons is so skimpy.
 
Interesting anecdotal evidence.

No one preserved these bodies?

Our knowledge about vulpine surgeons is so skimpy.

M. says that he took at least one picture of Stumpy on his phone. I did ask him to pass it on to me, but we seem to take it in turns to forget to progress the matter!

I'll try to remember to chase him up over the next few days.

maximus otter
 
I see the odd fox both in the country side and town but never seen
more than 2 together and that is rare, the mention of evidence of
surgery and the numbers makes me wonder if someone is doing
experiments/ research on the poor buggers then dumping them
when they are no longer useful.
 
On the subject of urban foxes, l forgot to mention a first-hand anecdote from a shooting buddy. He goes out foxing with a gamekeeper mate. Last year/early this year he shot a fox which had had a leg amputated and surgically stitched up. He also believes that he can tell dumped urban foxes from wild, country ones, as the urban ones seem clueless and show little fear of humans, making them easier to shoot.

l have also read more than one account on shooting forums by people who've dropped foxes which, on inspection, prove to have had surgical procedures, evident because of shaved patches with stitched surgical incisions.

maximus otter
Also, if they've just arrived in the countryside, urban foxes are probably still pretty fat! After a few years of living in a big city, and only seeing urban foxes, I was surprised to return home to the countryside and see our way, way skinnier ones.

Hunts still hunt foxes, right? Covertly, or they pretend they've caught em by accident, I'm guessing. We live near the river and occasionally hear a fox hunt going on, on the other river bank where they've got deep cover. And the sounds alone - which I knew my whole childhood - convince me, that's not drag hunting they're doing..?
 
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