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Watching an urban fox family

Urban foxes are so much easier to watch than their country counterparts. I have watched foxes in the countryside for decades, but with their sharp eyes, acute hearing and excellent sense of smell, sightings here are all too brief. Then a friend told me of a thriving population living near his home in York. I decided to use the opportunity to get up close to learn more about these animals and their enigmatic characters.

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Five year project to watch urban foxes

This was the beginning of a five-year project to watch foxes in my friend Colin’s city garden. It took me time to adjust to watching wildlife in a town – unlike foxes, which had adapted well to city life, I was right out of my comfort zone. But it was worth the effort when this spring I got to witness some fox behaviour I’d never seen before.

Finding the fox den

Colin and I began by building a safe haven for a fox vixen we knew lived near his garden. First we dug an artificial den behind some logs. We placed surveillance cameras inside so that we could watch their secret world. But the foxes had their own ideas and it was years before they chose to use their bespoke home. I was beginning to lose heart when Colin rang this spring to tell me that yet again the vixen had chosen to give birth to her cubs elsewhere. I drove to York to try to find her latest hiding place.

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What urban foxes eat

I headed to a den site I knew of nearby to see if she was hiding her cubs there. This den is bang in the middle of a massive patch of brambles and not easy to get close to, but as soon as I got there I knew I had the right place because around the edges were tell-tale clues of foxes.

There were rabbit remains and discarded pigeon and pheasant wings and tail feathers. The feathers had been chewed at the ends in a way few predators – except foxes – do. And the ground was worn smooth and the vegetation trampled outside one entrance hole, a sign that cubs played here. I could even smell the musky aroma of fox. I quickly set up some remote cameras, taking care not to disturb them, returning a few days later to review the footage. On camera was a vixen with two cubs and a dog fox.

Challenges faced by urban foxes

The den site is close to a popular dog-walking area. I held my breath as I watched a large, black dog on the screen. It followed its nose directly to the fox home and looked down one of the entrance holes. At night, the microphones also recorded the sounds of young people close by, lighting campfires and playing music loudly. It was interesting to see the different pressures urban foxes experience compared to their countryside counterparts.

Dangers for urban fox cubs

The cubs began to spend more time above ground, blissfully ignorant of these dangers. Fox cubs are very adventurous until they are about 10-13 weeks old and reach what is known as the ‘neophobic’ stage of their development when they are suddenly cautious of unfamiliar objects, particularly humans, and trust only the few family members that they have grown up with. But the vixen was clearly stressed about their safety.

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This worked to my advantage because she moved out of her bramble-patch den and into the comparative haven of Colin’s garden – where of course I had already built her a ready-made home for her youngsters to explore the world in safety.

Dog foxes supports the family

I headed into York to spend an evening watching the young family from a hide I had built close by. It wasn’t long before I heard a clatter of paws. I peered through my camouflage netting to see the dog fox bounding skilfully on top of a 6ft high wooden boundary fence. He surveyed the area briefly then leapt down into the garden, sniffing all around the patch before cocking his leg on one of my remote cameras and slinking off through a hole in the fence to continue patrolling the territory.

Fox cubs are very playful

Soon after, the female emerged through the same hole in the fence. Trotting alongside her was one of her cubs. It was the first time I had seen this cub in the flesh, even though I felt like I already knew it well from the footage captured on my remote cameras. The young cub lolloped past me, the sunlight picking out a halo of long hairs that were just poking through its woolly coat. Soon a second cub peeked through the gap in the fence and dashed to catch up with the others.

Together the cubs clambered over the logs, sniffing out any treats that Colin may have put out for them, and then began chasing each other around in circles. Next, they disappeared through the entrance to the fox den I had built and I watched on the screens connected to the hidden cameras as they collapsed, exhausted, and curled up together for a short nap. By now I had been watching them all evening and the light was failing, so I left them in peace and headed home.

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A large urban fox family

Colin continued to keep me up to date with sightings and sent me regular updates from the cameras. One day he rang to let me know about something baffling: apparently there were now more than two fox cubs in his garden. I headed back into York to see the extra cubs for myself. I settled into my hide and, as if on cue, the vixen materialised with her two cubs. She began to suckle them and behind her I spotted a small head appearing through the hole in the fence, then another, then another. Before I knew it a further three cubs had joined the other two and the vixen was now suckling five cubs.

Over the next week, the cameras captured fox cubs tumbling about everywhere. It was difficult to keep tabs on them all and it took me several attempts before I finally counted a total of 10. This was utterly puzzling. Foxes rarely have more than six cubs in one litter, and I could not understand how my remote cameras had only picked up two of them until now. Then a second vixen appeared on the scene and I realised the two vixens had joined forces to raise their cubs together.

Fox vixens join forces to care for cubs

I have heard of vixens that are related to one another helping out with cub-rearing duties and had even read about ‘alloparental’ behaviour, where ‘aunties’ help to raise offspring that are not their own, but this was different. Here were two vixens, each with cubs of their own, raising their cubs in one large ‘family’.

It just shows how when it comes to wildlife there is always so much more to learn. I had headed to York in the hope of studying one family of urban foxes and had ended up with much more than I bargained for. And of course, after years of catching glimpses of foxes in the countryside, it was also so amazing to watch them so closely in York.