British Urban Fox - One Contented Fox

Are foxes in Britain a danger to humans? The answer is no; there was a couple of reported incidences in London a few years ago where one or two foxes had apparently harmed babies but that is very exceptional, I've never heard of any such incidences before or since.

We have a large fox population in Bristol and I frequently see them in our back garden at night, but they're too timid to film as much as I would like to. Occasionally we'll see one darting across the road or going into someone's garden when we're coming home late after being out for the evening. And as I child coming home late from visiting a friend I even had a fox bump into me, but he instantly darted away.

The most memorable moment was a few years back when a few times I got up just before dawn and had the delight of fox cubs are our cats playing together on our lawn; it was too dark to get photos but it would have made a good photo shoot.

And no I'm not afraid of foxes getting the cats, the idea that they would is a myth; foxes are shy and timid face to face with a cat cornered, claws out, the fox will come off worse every time. The only reason a rural fox would go after chickens is when the fox is desperate for food they can be easy prey, and there are not that much of a threat to rabbits as a rabbit can easily outrun a fox.

There are subtle differences between rural and urban foxes, as there are subtle differences between town birds and the same species of birds living in the country. In the case of birds it's the pitch of their singing that is slightly higher so as be better heard over the din of urban noise pollution. In the case of the fox their eating habits are slightly different and other minor adaptations to live alongside humans with neither ever really meeting.

In fact the urban fox is generally welcomed and liked by most town and city people which no doubt was the main driving force in public opinion which eventually led to the ban of fox hunting in rural England.

The fox is such a timid dog that face to face it's no threat to humans, and other large predators that would have been such as wolves and bears that roamed England centuries ago have long since been hunted into extinction, even the one snake we have in Britain (the adder aka viper) is of little threat; they are timid and much rather slither away than bite, and if they do bite the reaction to their poison in most cases quite mild. The biggest danger in England tends to be from bee or wasp stings where people have an allergic reaction and even that tends to be extremely small with just two to six fatalities a year.