The half-tailed yearling vixen

The half-tail yearling vixen's behaviour has been quite unpredictable recently.  At times she seems very relaxed in the company of the other foxes, as here with three of this year's cubs.  (Note the size difference of the cubs is persisting).

Here is the other side of her behaviour.  Her mother joined the group from the right and was immediately confronted. The largest cub seemed to intervene on his mother's side to offer support.  The others here are the full-tailed yearling vixen on the left and a small cub back left.

This next sequence was a bit long so I have edited it.  Moments after the above the large cub had moved round to the back and the half-tail went for him.  After a bit of screaming she went off and was joined by her sister.  Then the sister returned before she and the two cubs saw, or imagined they saw, something scary over by the garage.  They ran off, together with another cub in the background but the alpha vixen wasn't concerned and stayed to eat.  The action then continued off stage for a couple of minutes so I have shortened it considerably.  Make sure the sound is on.

On another occasion the half-tail came to eat with her sister (left) and a cub (front) but reacted aggressively when another cub tried to join them.  There was a lot of body-blocking which went on for several minutes.  Eventually she decided it was all a bit silly and backed down.  One difficulty she has is that the largest of this year's cubs are now bigger and stronger than she is, even though she has seniority.

The half-tail's behaviour is difficult to interpret but I wonder if this might be a power grab - perhaps she will challenge her mother to be the alpha female.  Certainly her mother seems a very laid back individual and submits to her daughter's aggressive displays.  I still think some of the cubs may belong to the half-tail as both she and her mother looked as though they were feeding cubs in the spring.  The cubs are very hard to count because they come and go throughout the evening.  I am sure there are at least five and there may be as many as seven.