Reply With QuoteWhat watch you have on?
Last night (well, technically this morning), after some refreshment at a local public house I decided to take a short-cut home across some playing fields. Whilst I was sauntering along I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye and found myself being shadowed by a large fox! It was about 10 meters away, and was tracking me in parallel, but just behind me. When I stopped, the cheeky fox actually started to approach until I clapped when it came to within ca. 5m and I shooed it away.
What I found remarkable is that it didn’t run away, it merely retreated a bit and then continued to shadow me, when I stopped it tried to approach; even when I shined my iPhone torch it didn’t seem bothered. This continued for a few hundred metres until I crossed a bridge into an adjacent field.
Could any resident fox experts explain this behaviour? Was it protecting its young? Was it used to people and thought I’d feed it? Was it hunting me and I narrowly missed being eaten alive?
For the avoidance of doubt, I wasn’t too “tired”, it was an animal fox not an attractive lady, it wasn’t a slowworm and it wasn’t an alien. Probably.
What watch you have on?
Should have called Jo Maugham.
I would imagine it was hoping you would have some food to give it.
Ha - my Speedmaster. Perhaps the Fox was a WIS?Originally Posted by Franky Four Fingers
Popped into Travis Perkings the other day and they have a fox that lives there, they feed it regularly and it will walk up to you.
My old vet had one that was his pet some years back
Had you been eating Mr Porky pork scratchings in the pub?
One of the gamekeepers I used to know had one, always struck me as strange that a gamekeeper would have one but he had all sorts of orphaned animals such as a deer or two, various birds etc etc. Turns out he just loved working with animals.
Probably after food. Once saw one wandering Tesco car park, people feeding it.
We had one in the garden last year. Walked out the back door to empty the bin and the bugger would not move out of my way. It even gave a little growl.
We had a face off for a few minutes and then I walked towards it and it was in 2 minds to run or attack. Brazen sod he was.
At one time I had a fox shadow me whenever I walked to my local across the Crematorium grounds; about a mile.
Like Dances with Wolves it was. I stopped, Radgel stopped. I set off again, Radgel followed me, until I cleared the grounds and walked onto public roads.
Sounds like a bestseller …
( edited from 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time' - which is a good read BTW )
z
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Last edited by zelig; 7th August 2021 at 13:54.
I’ve read the Dog version of that book and it’s great.
"Stick to the path"
Were you in the 'Slaughtered Lamb"....
great cameo by Rik..
You would have only needed to worry if you were wearing a Rolex
I once encountered a Fox at 7:30 am one weekday morning on the way into work in Preston town centre. It just casually walked past me & wasn't fazed at all. i was more bothered than it was.
They seem completely unfussed when they encounter us & it was probably just wondering if you had any food.
Possibly a released rescue fox
Had one do exactly that same to me walking from Holiday Inn Cardiff airport the the terminal building. Quite uncanny experience.
Seems not uncommon
https://m.facebook.com/watch/?v=549085548833838&_rdr
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Foxes have certainly become very brazen.
To say that 'we are more afraid of them than they are of us' would be an understatement.
Would it, are people really afraid of them?
Stalked by a fox? The buggers are opening bars up here!
F.T.F.A.
In my experience of cities and rural, the behaviour of foxes matches their environment.
City foxes can be seen more and more in the daytime, on the streets looking for food. The learn that A) discarded food is everywhere in the city, and B) nobody is out to kill them
Rural countryside foxes are very wily and seldom seen. They run a mile or two when you see them and will kill and eat many unprotected small animals. They learn that death is a possibility when seen in the countryside.
Our gamekeeper is very pleased if someone dispatches a fox. But we rarely see them. We see bird carcases.
Foxes are scared of nothing.
They often follow you for a bit on a golf course,probably looking to get a titbit or raid a bag (had that happen!). On one course I used to be a member it wasnt uncommon to have to gently nudge a recumbent fox or it’s cubs of the tee so that you could play.
Your foxes have nothing to be scared of!
We are talking about two types of the same animal.
If there are dogs to chase then, men with guns etc, they learn pretty quickly to run and hide immediately.
I maintain, some foxes become urbanised, they maximise what they can get away with as the threat level drops.
City foxes also works in groups together foraging, out in the countryside you really never see them teaming up. When I lived in Leeds suburbia (hated it) there was a vixen outside the house quite often and you had to chase it away from the bins.
Trust me, wild foxes are wild. You see them for 0.3 secs, then they are 3 fields away. I have shot pheasants for 30 years and I am out in the fields a lot of the time.
Anyhow, we agree, They are indigenous.
We have one walk around the cars most nights / early mornings. If my cat is out, he chases it away - quite amusing to watch him defend his territory on the ring cameras in the morning.
Love the fact this thread title sounds like a children's classic novel.
Watched the next door neighbour's cat playing with a fox for about 20 minutes once....most bizarre. The Fox was very dog like in its play behaviour.
Shot with a "tame" fox on set ...it wasn't approachable let alone pettable...needed to be tethered in place.
What the Doc said,
This is town fox behaviour.
They’ve learnt to approach people because they may get fed.
Country fox has learnt to avoid people because they may get shot.
I live on a keepered estate.
It’s very rare to see a fox in the hours of daylight.
High density London suburbs - looked out of the window one rare hot night this summer and there were five foxes in the road lounging on the warm tarmac.
Three habituate the immediate area of the house, one regularly patrols along the back fence and did try to pop in to grab a slipper, two the front. One is mangy and thin, quite sad, it sometimes sleeps or shelters from the rain in ours or our neighbours porch.
They are regularly seen in daylight and are accustomed to people. Nobody openly admits to feeding them, but they do. I don’t encourage them, enjoy seeing them and wouldn’t harm them.
They aren’t any particular trouble, although the mangy one can keep his mange away, occasional crap, but less than the many local dogs and cats. Our milk deliveries and food waste are kept in lockable boxes. Any problem tends to come from offices and businesses who use contract waste disposal and leave bagged food waste out overnight for next day collection. I’ve no idea why businesses don’t have to secure their waste like residents do, they never clear any detritus up.
I read that the snouts of urban foxes are evolving, changing shape to suit urban scavenging.
I was canoeing on the Medway and saw two rural foxes working together to coral and trap rabbits, an amazing sight.
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Was once heading out of Bristol late at night in a taxi and we saw a fox walking down the centre of the main road towards us carrying a take-away brown bag in it's mouth. Even as we past by, it didn't waver from his course.
Admittedly I was a little 'tired' at the time but the taxi driver confirmed it was a fox and that he saw them regularly on that road (Hotwells Road for those that know it).
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Twenty years ago, I used to travel on the first train to Glasgow. Often, I was the first car to park at the station. It wasn't uncommon for the car to be followed into the car park by a skulk of foxes. Apparently fearless, they'd stand & watch me until I went into the station.
I suspect they went & lay under the car for heat when I disappeared from view.
______
Jim.
This reminded me of the time swmbo was ‘tired and emotional’ late one evening and she looked off the balcony to see a couple of foxes playing in the apartments grounds, out came a couple of packs of ham and rather than take them down she frisbees the slices off the balcony, they hit the bushes and leave them looking like meat trees.
Luckily for her the foxes took care of it overnight, I was rather looking forward for the hungover cleanup of shame the next morning.
Definitely normal for urban foxes, as far as I can tell. Round here they really don’t give a hoot, and aren’t in any way intimidated by people or vehicles. They’ll keep a bit more distance when I’m out with the dogs (who tend to become Very Interested Indeed) but even then, they won’t necessarily run away. Having said all of which, we very rarely get foxes in our garden, they seem to have enough sense to stay out because they know there are dogs here. I wish the same could be said of cats, there have been a couple of close calls over the years.
When we have been down in the New Forest with the in-laws, by contrast, although there are plenty of foxes about they really avoid people, full stop. I’ve never seen one there in daylight and at night they scarper as soon as they detect you.
There was a period a couple of years ago when I lived most of the week, Alan Partridge-style, in the Crowne Plaza near Kings Cross. Every evening I used to walk past a fox who sat on the doorstep of a nearby house as if he was the family dog, completely unperturbed by anyone who happened to come near him. It was quite a novelty as I don’t recall ever seeing a fox in the centre of Newcastle. I assume the infamous sights and sounds of our nightlife are just too overwhelming for them.
I took these photos today at one of my Fire Stations, our resident fox has taken to sleeping in the cars our crews use for R.T.A. practice. He briefly looked at me before laying back down for a kip on the dashboard in the sun.
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Why Radgel?
Probably wee'd on it.
Maybe it saw you cross the road and thought you were a chicken!
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