The foxes have been fed every night for over a year now so my garden is an early port of call on their rounds. Four foxes visit regularly but any one of them might be the first here and the first one gets the best food. I haven't taken photos recently so I decided to set up the camera again. As I was doing so I noticed a fox right outside the window. I hadn't yet put out any food so it wandered off across the lawn and seemed to be catching earthworms.
Once the fox had gone I was able to put out the food. When it returned I could see it was the full-tailed cub from last year, now full grown of course.
Later her sister arrived, the half-tail, but there were only biscuits left.
The next night it was the mother of these two, last year's vixen, who turned up first and claimed all the meaty bits.
Suddenly she was aware of another fox and flattened in a very submissive posture. The new fox was this year's dog and, I presume, her new partner.
Once he joined in they seemed happy side by side but she didn't stay long.
Moments later another fox confidently joined the dog and he didn't seem to mind at all. This was again last year's full-tailed cub.
Here you can see that the dog (back left) is a much heavier build.
I am pretty sure the vixen has new cubs somewhere. I presume the new dog is their father and last year's daughter (but not his) is still in the family. I think, and hope, that the half-tail has her own cubs near by. I know that the half-tail submits to her sister but I haven't seen any interaction between her and her mother or the new dog.
From a different night here is a short video filmed on my iPhone. It starts with the dog (L) and the vixen (R) before they were joined by the full-tailed daughter. Ten minutes later they had all gone and the half-tail was here. She may have been watching from a distance and waiting for them to move away.
No comments:
Post a Comment