I have now seen two, yes, TWO foxes in London. Not really attractive people, mind you, but the little animal. The first time I saw a fox was in north London last winter, in a residential area around 11pm. It was crossing the street, heading towards a row of terraced houses. I was near a substantial park, so I just assumed the fox had wandered from there. Mainly, I was just surprised to actually see such an animal. A raccoon, sure, but not a fox!
Last week I saw my second fox. This time on my very own street! It was again quite late, and I was about to turn the corner to go down my street I saw what I thought was a Siamese cat peaking around and then running away at the site of me. When I turned the corner I saw that I was mistaken, as about 15 feet standing in the middle of the sidewalk was a fox with a black-tipped tale. Again upon seeing that I had tracked him down, it jumped up on a fence and over a garage that started my own row of terraced houses.
Having now seen two of these animals in very different parts of London, I have come to terms with the fact that they must be quite widespread! After all, I'm not some sort of night-person regularly returning home in the middle of the night, and this seems to be when they are out and about. They are clearly smarter than say, opossums, as you don't find fox roadkill. Come to think of it, I'm not sure if they have opossums in these parts. Or raccoons, for that matter. But hedgehogs, yes.
Along with their ability to generally steer clear of most forms of natural disasters (save floods!), the English will sometimes add the general ability to avoid being maimed by deadly wildlife as a perk to life on this little island. Foxes, while technically predators, are generally hunted by groups of dogs and men on horses in red jackets, and do not bite back. They are only a threat to farmers attempting to keep chickens. What's missing are bears, coyotes, large cats of any kind, and deadly spiders. While in many ways this seems a bit boring, it's still exciting to think that my next fox sighting could come at any time!
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6 comments:
No spiders? Claire may decide to move there. A couple of weeks ago she was in Eastern Oregon for the week when I got the parent nightmare call of "Hi, don't panic but we have Claire in the emergency room"! She had been bitten by a spider of unknown species and her knee swelled up to head size.
Oh, and we have warnings here of rabid bats. Bats bite raccoons and then the raccoons fight with our cats. The cats are up on their shots, but still, yuck!
Foxes--they are so, so cute. I saw one on the old family homestead way back in the old days when I was a teenager, and was struck by how pretty and lithe it was. It was as startled to see me and I was to see it, even though coming across one in the middle of the woods is a much more likely place to find one than in London! Sounds as if there are perhaps escapees from the hunts! Good for them!
i dont think my folks are the biggest fans as theyve woken up a couple times with the rubbish all over the back lawn because of foxes!
i hate spiders and snakes - they freak me out! I walked past a rattle snake in yosemite and that was bad enough! im pleased to say we are rabies free and harmful animal free here - so much so that dogs have passports to go to continental europe!
OMG! I saw a fox the other day for the first time in my life. And I've lived in the countryside for 10 years. Perhaps there is a sudden proliferation of them now that they have banned fox hunting, no control of the population.
I don't remember seeing any at the old homestead. Though there was a fox den we passed on the way to school. It had probably been abandoned because of all the curious kids peering into it.
Seeing a fox kitten would have been a highlight!
I'm glad fox hunting is banned, thought it probably will make for more garbage rummaging foxes on the loose.
Perhaps the foxes long ago realized that in the countryside men on horses with hounds come and hunt them, but that London is relatively horse free, and started up an urban colony.
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