Urban Fox – Friend or Foe?

Ever seen a Fox in your garden?

Where we live, foxes are quite common, around the Villages are lots of fields and hedgerows and quite a few areas of woodland which is perfect “fox country”.

You maybe surprised to learn that there are more “urban foxes” in the UK than rural ones. Foxes are extremely adaptable creatures and can generally thrive in most environments including a cityscape. With the increasing demand for housing and the ever expanding urban areas, the foxes natural habitat is changing.



Being forced into an urban environment, the fox has a ready made food supply, No! it is not your pet cat, infact a fox is only just larger than an average sized cat and in a fight, 9 times out of 10 the cat would wipe the floor with a fox. Foxes tend to receive food from us, most city dwellers will happily feed a fox or leave food for one if they know there is one living in their vicinity. Once a fox knows there is a ready made food supply at hand (or Paw) it will return to that place frequently and they will approach a human if it knows it can receive food, they will even try and enter a house through an open door or a cat flap to look for food.

Just make sure any small pets are kept secured if you know there are foxes in your area, anything smaller than a cat is fair game to a fox, with rabbits and rodents being it’s preferred choice as this is what would be hunted in the wild. There was a story recently of a baby being snatched by a fox, thankfully the child wasn’t badly hurt and those sort of instances are beyond rare. Foxes are very timid and will run rather than fight (unless it is cornered).

If you do have foxes in your vicinity and want to try and avoid them coming into your garden, there are a couple of products that you can put down which will not hurt the fox or any pets you may have.

The first is Inspired Fox Repellent Spray. For £3.41 plus shipping for 500ml, Just spray around the areas of entry to your garden and any areas you think have been frequented by the fox. This will mask any territorial marking made by the fox and give off an odour that foxes find unpalatable. it has the added bonus of keeping strays out too.

The second is Garden Genie Fox Repellent Concentrate. Also £3.41 plus shipping for 500ml, It works exactly the same as the Inspired spray but is a concentrated form which you dilute and works over time, this gives a continuing deterrence and again is pet safe.

Personally, I think foxes are beautiful creatures, they are vastly more intelligent than your average dog and have gotten a bad press over the last few years, As we encroach more and more into their habitat, it is only fair they encroach into ours and I for one will always encourage a fox to come into my garden."