Species Spotlight Challenge - Day 18 - Red Fox

The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) is one of our most familiar wild mammals in the UK, as well as one of the most controversial (at least when it comes to the rights and wrongs of hunting them). When I was growing up I always thought of foxes as something I might see on a visit to the countryside, if I was really lucky.  I remember being sooo excited when I saw my first one, with my Dad in the west of Ireland. However, even at that time they were starting to move into our cities. I think the first time most people became aware that urban foxes were a 'thing' was when the BBC natural history unit in Bristol showed footage of a fox family in the middle of that city. Since then, I (and I expect many of you) have got used to seeing foxes on suburban streets and in people's back gardens.

You may have wondered why it is called a Red Fox when it is clearly orange in colour. Well it's the same reason we have Red (not Orange) Squirrels (although sadly we don't have many of them anymore in England at least), and is related to the reason that we have flowers called Red Clover and Red Campion when both are purply-pink. And also why we talk about people with red hair. It is simply that the word 'red' used to refer to a much wider part of the colour spectrum than it does now. The word 'orange' used to be used for the fruit only, and the word 'pink' was the name of a flower (relatives of the carnation). Until these words started to catch on for the colours, 'red' was used for all of them.

When I was out for a walk this afternoon, in some industrial brownfield land between Middlesbrough and Redcar, I came across the little fellow below. He seemed a bit smaller than adult foxes I have seen before, so I think he (or she) is probably about half to three-quarters grown. This year's young should be independent of their parents by now but they won't be fully grown until early autumn.

Although, foxes are expert hunters in the Order Carnivora, they are actually opportunistic omnivores and so will eat what they can get, including beetles, fruit and the contents of bins, as well as animals such as rabbits and voles.