In one of my first few weeks here at Oxford, I was walking back to Lady Margaret Hall in the dark when a streak of auburn darted across the pavement. At first, I had no idea what it was. A trick of the orange streetlamp light, or a blue light-induced hallucination? But then, a week or so later, I saw it again — this time closer. It was a fox. On the street! Wow!
As a visiting student from the United States, I had never seen a fox outside of a zoo before, let alone one in an urban setting. But in the south of England, urban foxes have rapidly spread into urban areas over the past century — so much so that they gained the enmity of Boris Johnson during his tenure as mayor of London. In 2001, a team of biologists at the University of Zurich developed two hypotheses about urban fox populations. Foxes either move to urban areas after being forced from adjacent rural areas, or they colonise urban areas because they’ve adapted to human conditions. Either way, urban foxes have populated cities due to necessity, not desire.
These foxes tend to favour suburban areas with gardens, parks, and open spaces that provide shelter — like Oxford. The Oxford City Council has stated that controlling urban foxes is challenging, as efforts to do so only promote breeding and territorial disputes. They recommend keeping garbage in containers and avoiding leaving food outside, as it attracts foxes.
However, the Birmingham & Black Country Wildlife Trust has said that there is little harm in feeding urban foxes, as long as it’s not done excessively. Foxes are carnivores, but they also eat fruit and vegetables. Even pet food will do. However, they can also kill pets like guinea pigs, dig up lawns, and trample gardens—so perhaps feed them at your own risk.
Foxes, which inhabit every continent except Antarctica, have existed alongside humanity and therefore impacted cultural mythos and belief. They hold different spiritual meanings in various cultures. In British folklore, foxes are tricksters and dance in the moonlight when the moon is full. The Dutch folktale of Reynard the Fox depicts a fox who continually lies to escape punishment for his offences against the other animals, an example for children of how not to act. In Chinese and Korean cultures, foxes are both kind and malevolent, acting as seducers or celestial beings.
So as it turns out, the varied view of foxes in folklore has persisted into our view of urban foxes today, as either clever companions or cunning nuisances. I like to think of them as the former, perhaps because of their novelty, but also because they’re only looking for a place to stay. It’s evident that they aren’t going anywhere, so we might as well learn to co-exist. Maybe their cleverness will rub off.