Latin: Vulpes vulpes
The fox is probably one of the most recognizable animals in Danish nature with its distinctive appearance including all the stories and fairytales where the fox is involved. The fox is a wild and yet a social animal. Some of them even gets close to humans without fright, which is a great pleasure for children and childish souls.
However, a fox can cause problems for humans if you are not careful, since the fox easily get close to humans, they can quickly turn into a pest, especially when they go in bins for easy food.
Appearance
Most people can easily recognize a fox from for instance a dog or a cat. The fox belongs to the dog-family and may at first glance look like a dog. The fox has a red coat over most of the body, although the tip of the tail and markings on the face are usually white or whitish. The paws are darker, at times completely black. The fox also has a pointed snout and a triangular face.
Like most other mammals, the male is larger than the female. A female fox typically weighs between six and seven kg, while a male fox weighs up to eight kg. Some male foxes can weigh as much as 12 kg. From tail to snout, the fox is about 110 cm long.
Biology and behavior
Foxes are mainly predators, in the wild they usually hunt animals like, hares, rabbits, deer, birds, and bird eggs. However, they also hunt smaller prey, such as mice and insects. There are several observations where foxes eat dead animals, fruit and even waste from various danish households.
Foxes mate in the beginning of the year, around January and February. Then, the females are pregnant for 53 days. A litter is typically four to eight pups, but you usually only see the puppies a month after their birth, where they begin roaming outside the cave. At fall, the pups will normally leave the cave and their family, but some will linger and help raise the litters of the following year.
Damage
A fox only becomes a pest when it starts to go into garbage containers and other kind of garbage. Fortunately, the municipalities in Denmark have been good at enforcing better regulations regarding waste management. This has made it harder for the fox to find easy food within the urban and residential areas, so they leave the area again in search of prey.
Foxes have a special ace up their sleeve, from spring until autumn they can look thin and hungry. The reason for this is that they shed their fur during that period, as well as the fact that they are breeding their pups during this period.
Never feed a hungry looking fox, as this only leads to more hungry foxes coming to one’s door searching for food. They will multiply faster if they are able to obtain easy feed.
Prevention and pest control
It is a shame that the fox recently has received a bad reputation, because they are a good to have in the wild. Their survival instinct has led them to urban and residential areas like many other members of the dog family has done it. Foxes are easily prevented by simply making it impossible for them to find food. By securing the waste and of course avoiding feeding foxes. It is illegal to shoot or otherwise kill a fox outside the hunting period.
If you have a fox problem, you should try to preserve their shyness to humans by chasing it off. If a fox keeps going into your waste, contact the Danish Nature Agency, who will guide you further.
"Pests in House and Home"
"Bed Bugs - Bites, Stings and Itches"
"Food Pests"
"Husets dyreliv" (Insects Around the House - Only danish)
"Skadedyr i træ" (Timber Pests - Only danish)
"Stuefluen" (Common Housefly - Only danish)