David Element

Wildlife Photography

and Digital Video Images

___________________ Mammals 10 - Red Foxes 6

                                       RED FOX Vulpes vulpes (f)

                                       RED FOX Vulpes vulpes (f)

                                       RED FOX Vulpes vulpes (f)

                                       RED FOX Vulpes vulpes (f)

                                       RED FOX Vulpes vulpes (f)

                                       RED FOX Vulpes vulpes (m)

• All of the above pictures are of adult vixens apart from the final photograph which is of an itinerant dogfox. This picture was one of a series taken early one morning from an upstairs window during the mating season, a time of year that these animals are sufficiently preoccupied to behave in a less cautious manner than normal. In the urban environment in which these photographs were taken almost all sightings seem to be of vixens at night, so this was quite a rare event - indeed the only sighting of a male in an area with two (later three) vixens holding adjacent and overlapping territories during a period of more than two years. One of the two resident females gave birth the following spring - she has now disappeared and is presumed to have died. The second vixen either failed to conceive or spontaneously aborted her cubs at an early stage. Although no male was seen during the following winter two out of the three females did have cubs (as yet unseen) during the following breeding season. The cubs may have shared the same father but this is speculative. This time the vixen that failed to breed during the previous season was successful, as indeed was the new (younger) arrival, and the failure was the vixen that had already produced a litter of cubs. The population dynamics are therefore intriguing as the absent fathers cannot be contributing much (if at all) to the care of the cubs. The most likely scenario is that any vixens without cubs would assist those that have bred successfully - provided that they get on well enough! The degree of tolerance may be greater towards close relatives and there is certainly a well-defined pecking order amongst the three vixens with the youngest being the most subservient. Whether she is related to either of the older animals is not known. It is likely that the males hold much larger territories and also probable that they live shorter lives as they would be exposed to a greater range of hazards than the females. Certainly the most catastrophic deaths would be those of vixens attending to their young cubs as these would then starve. See Mammals 2 for further information about this species. The first three photographs were taken by the method described on Mammals 8.

Links to 'ARKive' species accounts:

• For further information about the Red Fox use the following link: http://www.arkive.org/species//ARK/mammals/Vulpes_vulpes/

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