The Fox is one of those animals which is either loved with a passion or hated with just as much emotion. They are abundant in the Peak District undergrowth, but are also at home just as much in the villages and towns. With a worldwide reputation for cunning, like the hare, there are stories and legends surrounding the Fox, which sometimes gives them a bad reputation. Whatever are your own feelings about foxes, it cannot be denied that they are stunning to look at, breathtaking to see in the Derbyshire moors and Dales, are endearing with babies in tow, and a photographer’s and artist’s delight to capture on film or on canvas.
Foxes are normally extremely wary of humans but there have been several instances where Peak District residents or holidaymakers have had foxes bringing their babies into back gardens to be fed. Sometimes mistaken for dogs, they are small to medium sized canids characterised by their long, narrow snouts and of course their gloriously bushy tail, or brush. There are 37 species which are referred to as foxes, but only 12 species actually belong to the genus ‘Vulpes’, and are ‘true foxes’.
Foxes adapt to new environments and are very successful as invasive species. Not normally pack animals, they occupy new areas and generally prey on invertebrates and other small mammals, reptiles such as snakes, amphibians, birds and fish. They are actually omnivores so also eat berries, fruit, eggs and insects. Foxes consume around a kilogram of food every day and they cache excess food, often burying it for later consumption, usually under leaves, soil or snow.
It is common to see foxes in cities and uncultivated areas and they seem to adapt to human presence quite easily, if not being extremely shy. They have also been successfully employed to control pests on fruit farms, while leaving the fruit intact in some countries. They are native in most of the northern hemisphere and their geographical distribution spans from North America, Europe to Japan. There are some species of fox in the Arctic Circle and southern and central America, North Africa and Asia.
Animals have always played a huge part in human culture with folklore and legends, stories and tales but the fox occupies a special place. In all countries inhabited by foxes, these animals play an important part of human tradition. For centuries they have been associated with deceitfulness, cunningness or even evil in some cases, although usually the tales end with the reader or listener having a begrudging respect and admiration for their foxy traits.
The saying goes that most people hate foxes but it is untrue thankfully but it is easy to judge if you haven’t come across your very own poultry pen raided by the Fox and your beloved hens killed. In a survey about Wildlife in the Garden completed by nearly 4000 households in Britain, only 8% disliked foxes and in a recent survey by The Mammal Society, foxes were voted as one of the most popular British mammals.
It is often thought that the foxes kill for fun and this accusation is simply untrue. Most animals kill to find food every day to survive and some nights may be better than others in terms of food for a fox, so given the opportunity they may kill surplus food to eat another night when hunting is less good. It’s simply animal behaviour and a very successful strategy for surviving in the wild. When a fox breaks into a henhouse it is surrounded by easily caught prey and so it is normal behaviour for it to kill all prey available and try to cache it. It will take off with what it can, and often the householder or farmer sees the devastation long before the fox is able to come back to collect the rest.
Another common misconception is that foxes and dogs can breed but they are distinctly different species and cannot hybridise. The breeding season of the fox is very short, a few weeks in winter and outside this short period, female foxes aren’t fertile. There are also rumours that urban foxes are being collected and dumped in the countryside, leading to huge populations but this is another myth. They are often thought of as ‘ bringers of disease’ but this maligning of this beautiful creature only adds to its aura. Mange is more common in urban foxes rather than in rural fox populations.
Modern foxhunting was introduced by Hugo Meynell in the early 1800’s. That was a shortage of foxes for hunting and so there was a thriving trade importing foxes from the continent for sale in London. Some of these imports were even young wolves and foxes were also caught in Scotland and Wales, where there were few mounted hunts, to be sold to English packs. These foxes were called ‘bagmen’ and were often recaptured, to be hunted again on another day. To preserve fox numbers, hunts also recompensed farmers for losses caused by foxes, unpaid gamekeepers for each litter of cubs reared on the land.
Foxhunting has been a controversial issue in Britain for a long time. Pro-hunt supporters maintain that foxhunting controls the fox population and it was, in a way, a long time ago, a form of pest control, rather than a sport. Anti-hunt supporters argue that it was an in humane sport and it has now been illegal in the Peak District and the rest of England and Wales since 2005.
Whatever your feelings are about the fox, it is arguably one of the most stunning creatures to live up here in Derbyshire and our photographers here at Peak District Online certainly have enjoyed the challenge of trying to do their own foxhunting, but only using their humble camera lens as a weapon!