Fox vs mobile…
Posted By Foxy Lady on February 21, 2024
Okay, this one is not technically a “garden” fox, rather in woodland, but if he wanted a mobile phone then he definitely counts as “urban”!
Garden Fox Watch
Watching a family of foxes growing up in my back garden.
Our garden foxes...
Welcome to the Garden Fox Watch blog, detailing the life and times of the family of foxes that are growing up in our back garden.
City foxes braver but not smarter than rural cousins, apparently
Posted By Foxy Lady on August 10, 2023
The study, published in Animal Behaviour, left puzzles in foxes’ habitats for them to solve to get rewards of food. City foxes were more likely to touch the puzzles but both sets of foxes were equally likely — or unlikely — to solve them.
I strongly suspect that the city foxes thought “nah… can’t be bothered, I saw half a kebab back down the road, or we might get some dog food and cheese if we swing by that back garden…”
“Loving” foxes
Posted By Foxy Lady on February 18, 2022
Seen on Petapixel, some great photos of foxes together as taken by Roeselien Raimond…
The British Library’s top sound of 2021…
Posted By Foxy Lady on December 14, 2021
… was, apparently, the sound of a fox screaming — listen to it here. (The rest of the BL’s top picks can be seen here.)
I’m slightly surprised that there are urban-dwellers who don’t know what foxes sound like! 😉
Well, you don’t see this every day…
Posted By Foxy Lady on June 4, 2021
We were having lunch a couple of days ago when we spotted an unusual visitor to our bird table…! We are reasonably sure that no birds were harmed — they would have flown away long before this vixen had made it up there — but surely bird food isn’t that appetising for foxes? (It’s not like they don’t get anything else.)
Urban foxes “diverging from their country cousins”
Posted By Foxy Lady on June 3, 2020
According to an article on the BBC here, new research shows that urban foxes are tending to have smaller brains and a differently-shaped snout to their country cousins — smaller brains because they do not need to pursue so many different types of prey, different snout as an adaptation for urban foraging. We haven’t been out to measure the skulls of our local foxes just yet but, judging by the state of our lawn this morning, they’re still quite capable of taking down pigeons…
The published paper is here. Interestingly, the specimens on which the researchers were basing their analysis had been collected between 1971 and 1973; back then there were considerably fewer urban foxes than there are now (at least in the part of London where Foxy Lady grew up — and yes, sadly she is old enough to remember that era…) so it would be interesting to see a comparative study done with more recently-collected skulls.
Lovely foxes on the BBC
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 27, 2020
For those of you with access to BBC Iplayer, you should take a look at yesterday’s edition. There is a lovely article starting at about 48:30 into the program talking to Mark Mason Gardner, who enjoys watching the foxes in his London garden from a purpose-built hide accessible to his wheelchair. His resident vixen is apparently raising seven cubs this year; makes our vixen’s four look positively restful…
(Yes, more photos/videos soon! There are plenty ;))
Pushing the light….
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 11, 2020
Good thing the camera can cope acceptably with low light if you ask it nicely….! Mum and two of the cubs decided to come out and check out the food, but first the cubs decided they weren’t weaned just yet!
Cubs in the sun
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 10, 2020
It was a nice sunny day on Friday (which is more than can be said around Fox Towers today, at least). And the cubs decided to come out and show themselves in the sunshine. We have at least four — I wouldn’t be surprised if there was at least one more waiting to show itself, since Mrs Vixen still seems to be taking food off for feeding elsewhere. And they are VERY bouncy!
2020 cub debut!
Posted By Foxy Lady on May 6, 2020
It’s a strange world you’re coming into, kid, but welcome anyhow…
