Fantastic foxes

Despised by many, loved by many, a source of great controversy, a tame garden visitor for some and a wild, wary, predator of the countryside for others.  The Red Fox is all of these, and much more.  One of my projects for this year is to photograph our local foxes, but recently an unexpected opportunity came along.

I was walking along the edge of some heather moorland when I heard the barking of a fox from a conifer plantation a few hundred metres away.  Although the light was poor, and fading fast as dusk approached, I set my camera on it’s tripod and started squeaking.  Being a predator can’t be an easy life, so it’s no surprise that the possibility of an easy meal (a prey species that’s clearly already distressed) is an attractive one.  Within a few seconds, a head popped up at the top edge of the moor.

My main concern now was whether the fox would quickly identify the source of the noise.  Foxes are always exciting to see on our evening wildlife watching tours, but they can be a bit of a nuisance as they have very sharp eyesight and often raise the alarm, even if you’re as well hidden as you can be and you avoid making any sudden movements.

On this occasion though, the lure of a ‘distressed rodent’ was so great that the fox made it’s way down the hillside, crossing the moor from side to side as it tried to home in on the sound.

Finally the fox found the source of the squeaking, and gave me a good hard stare for 30 seconds before trotting back up the hill and chasing another fox in and out of the plantation.