| Fox - Vulpes vulpes - Family: Canidae
 Fox - Vulpes vulpes© Paul Keene (Avico Ltd)The fox is a familiar member of the dog family. It has reddish-orange fur with a white underside and white tip to its bushy tail. Primarily nocturnal, foxes live in small groups in earths and they are sometimes seen about during the day. These adaptable and intelligent mammals have successfully colonised urban areas and seem frequently to excavate holes beneath the protection of garden sheds. Although foxes have the reputation for killing livestock their main food sources are small mammals, frogs, insects, fruit and berries but they are opportunistic feeders and will take anything edible that comes their way. The female vixen will give birth in the spring to around four to six young. At first, they are blind and helpless but they reach full maturity in around nine to eleven months. If you want to encourage foxes and their cubs to visit you, then pieces of fruit or other scraps might just tempt them. It can be a wonderful experience to watch this agile creature play with its cubs and teach them the skills they need for life. However, if you do not want any foxes which may be living in the vicinity to make a habit of visiting your garden, then you need to make sure that no scraps are left out in plastic bags and that your waste bins are secure. Both sexes produce the rather eerie sounding 'scream'; but this is usually made by the vixen. FoodOmnivorous: berries and fruits, small mammals, frogs, nestling birds, moth and butterfly larvae, other insects and many other invertebrates, discarded human foodstuffs. PlantsCrab apple, Field rose, Hawthorn, Holly, Midland hawthorn PreyBank vole, Beetles, Butterflies, Common frog, Common shrew, Dormouse, Feral pigeon, Grey squirrel, Hedgehog, Mallard, Moorhen, Moths, Pheasant, Rabbit, Slow-worm, Stoat, Wood mouse, Woodpigeon, Worms, Yellow-necked mouse |
