Are foxes ever aggressive?

[Barry]

I am currently moving plants between an old and a new allotment. Unfortunately, I am having to do this mostly in the dark, which can be quite scary... To make matters worse, I am forever stalked by one or two foxes, which will appear out of nowhere and scare the living daylights out of me. They always seem to run away, but then circle at a not too distance area. Do foxes ever attack human beings? Do I have anything to worry about? They seem to be highly curious and very territorial!

[peter]

They have been known to bite babies or small children.

Sling some clods at them and they will learn to avoid you.

Hope their den is not too near your plot or you will have problems. Caching of spare food, rolling and digging in your seedbed and their pooh is vile, my dog tries to use it as perfume.

[Barry]

Peter,
I always throw something at them whenever they creep up on me in the dark! But shall continue and perhaps they will get the message. There is nothing worse than knowing an animal is circling you when you are trying to concentrate on something else.
Interestingly, the foxes live in the nearby railway embankment and use the allotment to cache eggs in. They must have hundreds hidden away because I used to come across them all the time! Bizarrely they all had purple stamps on them!!!

[peter]

If it is a "live" railway, Railtrack might remove them as a potential cause of landslips with their excavations?

Any Chinese plotholders?

100 year old eggs.

[alan refail]

Fear not, Barry.

This seems to cover all questions:

http://www.lbhf.gov.uk/Images/cieh%20ad ... -76350.pdf

or a shorter version (in Scottish):

http://www.dundeecity.gov.uk/ehts/urbanfoxes.htm

Alan

[Primrose]

I'm sure they wouldn't attack you. The foxes round here are very timid and even when we put food out for them, if neighbouring cats come to nibble at it, the foxes back off and won't risk a confrontation with a cat. We even watched a cat, at dead of night, chasing a fox off down the road !
I suspect that they just have a den nearby and are a little anxious about intruders in their territory in the darkness, which is when they mostly prefer to operate. I'm not sure when they give birth (sometime soon I imagine) so this may be another reason why they're anxious about a human around in their territory at the moment.

[Barry]

Thank you all for your very interesting advice. I don't think I am under threat of a serious attack; however, if one of these foxes appears out of thin air in the darkness yet again, I think I might suffer a heart attack. Moral: avoid having to do things to your allotment at night!!!

[Colin_M]

Sorry to hear of your problems.

We've had foxes a few times in the past, but not recently. As a towny, I rather miss them.

Here's what the last one looked like:


And no, that mess behind isn't my allotment!


Colin

[Primrose]

That's a nice healthy looking animal. A couple of our visiting foxes in the past have suffered badly from sarcotic mange, which gradually debiltates and can eventually kill them. We discovered the Vulpine Society will supply medication which you can put on their food to help boost their immune symptom and help fight the effects of mange. We did apply it but don't know if the affected foxes got to the food first so it's a rather "hit and miss" way of combatting the disease.

[Johnboy]

Lead does a far better job!!
JB.

[Primrose]

Dear Johnboy,
Not in our garden it doesn't !!!

[Johnboy]

Dear Primrose,
Nor does it in my garden. I simple couldn't resist the temptation making the posting.
JB.

[Primrose]

Dear Johnboy,
Don't tell me you've joined my Grumpy Old Gits brigade. Nearly everybody I know over the age of 40 seems to have signed up to it these days. Must be something to do with all the daily depressing headlines in the newspapers !
Reverting back to the topic of foxes, when do the first cubs start appearing. Think it's a little early yet but the foxes round here seem to be coming earlier at night for their food and I was wondering whether this had anything to do with knowing there will soon be extra mouths to feed.

[Johnboy]

Hi Primrose,
Because I live in an exceedingly rural area I very seldom see fox cubs. I quite frequently see foxes on my plot but the strange thing is that you are more likely to see fox cubs in an urban setting and I take it is because they do not have the natural cover that they have here. I no longer keep any livestock or poultry so there is not much to attract them and when I see them they will be in transit to somewhere else. There are masses of Rabbits about and they would be their staple food hereabouts.
I would imagine that fox cubs are being born about now and it will be several weeks before they are old enough to roam.
As for being over forty well I'm well on the way to being double that so it would appear that I qualify for being a Grumpy Old Git which at times I certainly can be!
The Primroses are in full bloom in the orchard and these are wild stock that have crept in over the years. I also have hundreds of wild Cowslips a little later on. I propagate them by waiting until the seeds are really ripe and ready to drop then I give the pod and stalk a smart backhander and that spreads them far and wide. I no longer allow Sheep in the orchard as the buggers eat them off.
JB.

[madasafish]

Our local foxes are very timid...we only see them early am or very late pm.

This does not stop them or the badgers digging up our lawn for worms or using aprt of our garden as a toilet..

Mind you the fox sett is only 50 metres away from our garden in the fields behind us...