An exploratory study and review of incidents in Britain (2020)
"Instances of foxes biting people in Britain generate a great deal of media interest and misinformation.
Our experiments were the first to explore how wild foxes react to potential stimuli from babies. The chance nature and rarity of events makes it difficult to identify management solutions that will reduce the number of incidents where people are bitten by foxes. One unresolved question is why some foxes enter houses, since this is itself unusual. Much of the evidence suggests that this is also usually investigative rather than foraging behavior. Whether particular foxes are more likely to enter houses requires further study: while subordinate canids are typically bolder, disease may also influence fox behavior. Future research should focus on the age, social status, and health of foxes that enter houses, and those that interact spontaneously with people. The biggest challenge is to address the moral panic spread by the British media whenever a child is bitten by a fox."
Study summary of media reports involving foxes:
Increase in Calls Regarding Wild Foxes
At Black Foxes UK, we have received an unusual amount of calls over recent weeks from concerned members of the public regarding wild foxes in their garden and their concern for their children. Thankfully, it has not taken much to explain that the risk is not as the media portray and our advice was readily accepted.
I have to assume this increase in this type of call is down to recent reports of foxes attempting to "make off with a baby" in ridiculous attention grabbing headlines recently. It made me understand how much damage such headlines can do for the fox's reputation.
Foxes in towns and cities may allow people to get unusually close to them. If they seem tame and are not unwell, it is because they have become habituated to humans and that is not natural, but down to their proximity and exposure to us.
Despite appearances, they will feel threatened if a person comes too close. When foxes feel threatened they will usually run away, increasing the flight distance (the distance they know to maintain between them and threat, in order to remain safe), but a habituated bold fox may stand its ground, gekker or even bite. An overly bold fox may also approach a person and nip at their hands or clothes in order to initiate a response and elicit food. Naturally, a wild fox would never allow a person to come close enough for them to be injured.
When animals become used to human presence it can open them up to unintentional harm because they are less likely to avoid traffic, hunters and pest controllers and ultimately end up in more wildlife-human conflict situations. Unfortunately, many urban foxes have become so habituated and conditioned to perceive people as a food source, that more and more foxes are being reported approaching people or casually entering homes. While some people may see this as endearing, others may see it as a nuisance behaviour or as a sign of ill-health.
This is not without just cause. Tameness is the top symptom for toxoplasmosis in foxes, a parasite that resides in the "fear center" of the brain; it essentially damages it and renders the fox fearless and which can make it appear tame. Foxes can be born with the parasite, though it may not be visibly noticeable until the fox is older and the symptoms become more severe. Death is ultimately the end result for foxes with such an infection should it go untreated in its early stages.
So what may appear a "cute" habituated behaviour, may in fact be down to a parasitic infection, that will spread to other foxes if not addressed and treated.
Why Fox Lovers Need to Pay Attention
The rise of social media, our desire to reconnect with nature and the spreading awareness of domesticated North American red foxes, has people feeding wild foxes more than ever before, and not always with right respect these animals need.
Feeding wildlife like foxes is only acceptable if it is done so ethically, with the best interests of the animal in mind. This means ensuring they remain unhabituated, retaining their natural behaviours and diet, and that we don't ignore disease risks because we think it is "cute" to see a wild fox behaving in a tame manner. However, what is seen on fox groups in social media is often inappropriate diets and amounts, with people encouraging foxes into their homes and attempting to hand feed them.
Wild foxes should have a natural fear of people. When wild animals no longer see people as a threat, they may allow people to come close or they may actively approach people out of curiosity.
If people then feed the animal, they will be reinforcing that behaviour, increasing the likelihood it will occur again. If this process is repeated, it will actively condition the animal to seek out humans as a source for food. While this gives people an incredible opportunity to experience a connection with wildlife, habituation is not beneficial for wild foxes. It increases wildlife conflict, masks disease and also aids its transmission and repeated over generations, it ultimately leads to domestication.
The reason wildlife charities will advise NOT to feed foxes unless it is sick and in need, is for their welfare and best interests. If human-fox conflict occurs, it is the fox that is left dealing with the (often lethal) control measures.
We are creating issues for the fox with our kindness and we need to address it. If you love foxes and want the best for them, keep them wild. If you do feed them, only feed <70g of fox appropriate food every 2-3 days per fox (keep it between 200-300 calories). Never hand feed or encourage them into your home, that is an abuse of their welfare and manipulation of their natural behaviour. Humans have a power over animals that we must not abuse.
That Facebook post is really not worth the consequences of us collectively domesticating the wild fox 'in situ'.
The people compiling the study failed in two aspects. 1) they obviously went by news reports rather than get onto fox forums because then a LOT of their questions would have been answered. 2) Again, reliance on news reports. Those cases of children being bitten sounded worry at the time, however, in each case as I recall there was a family dog or two and in two cases police officers involved told me they were quite "nasty" (hence the suspicion that foxes did not enter the houses, walk right in front of the parents, past the dogs and up the stairs and, having done their work, returned along the same route not seen once until "much later ion the garden".
In none of the cases I looked at was any expert opinion sought over the bitemarks. In fact the police never took photos -it wasn't a "crime scene" but wildlife incident. In three cases it was found that the people involved were countryside alliance supporters. Again, as far as I can recall none of the child incidents yielded fox evidence other than one where a fox was photograph in the back garden but ran off.
None of this matters to the Press of course because they have no interest in fact and one reporter I spoke to was quite against anything proving the fox innocent -"Wolf like animal attacks baby in cot!" is far to damn sexy a headline to replace with "Was a fox really responsible?"
We then come to the other incidents. On any fox group on FB a researcher would find discussions on how to get a fox into the house by using food not to mention plenty of video footage and photos -all so that the person involved can get social media likes and be praised by others who ask "How can I get mine into the house?" There are people who make up beds for 'their' fox in the hose. Some play with 'their' fox using old slippers and play by letting the fox nip at or pull their slippers. All of this the fox does in another human's house or garden it is instantly an "attack!"
What are the detailed circumstances in all of the cases -are they presented because without the photos of wounds all we are going by is someone's claim. I once had a neighbour whpo hated dogs and mine in particular. Coming back from a walk my dog was ten feet ahead of me when I saw the neighbour literally jumpout and wave his hand at my dog that was startled and barked back. I also noted the neighbour hit his hand on the garage wall he jumped out from behind. When I put my dog on the lead to talk to the neighbour who showed me his bloody finger and was screaming that my dog had bitten him but near the wound was also some rush from the garage his hand had struck. "Beat him! Beat him!" he kept yelling and I told him to calm down and he started on "Your dog bit me" thing again. So I looked at him and told him no problem; I would call the police who would examine the wound and then check my dog's teeth and they would deal with the matter. He immediately lost interest but had I not seen him hit his hand I might have assumed that my dog that had never bitten anyone in his life even when provoked had bitten him. In the end the neighbour simply wanted me to beat my dog in front of him.
If any body is going to conduct studies such as this they need to do more than just look at news reports and then raised queries. How about all those fox group members who want to get a fox cub to pickup and cuddle? Those who want to get foxes into their houses to give them "better lives"? Or the idiots who have fingers covered in chicken or other food grease and insist on hand feeding?
I think, whatever money went into this study should have gone to a psychological study of fox feeders where there is more than abundant evidence and information and not fuel fear of a crazed canid in our gardens.
Interesting post. Pretty much every day on twitter/facebook I see people interacting inappropriately with wild foxes. It's definitely an issue that needs properly addressing because even when this is explained to people many simply ignore the advice or think that their situation is different and they have a ~special~ relationship with 'their' foxes. It's killing with kindness.
I do know foxes are quite mouthy animals and like to investigate things by biting/chewing on them so I suspect many 'attacks' are from curious young or habituated foxes that aren't actually being aggressive but just investigating people's fingers or such the same way they would do with any other unfamiliar object. Not that it makes such behaviour ok, but I think it's important to distinguish between actual aggression and full-on bites to nips out of curiosity. I knew one habituated fox many years ago that was obsessed with shoes and well known in the area for biting people's shoes and untying their laces. I don't think he ever tried to actually bite anyone though. He never tried to bite me when sniffing my hands. (He completely ruined those boots with the amount of times he chewed/scratched at them. You can even see some of the scuff marks he left in the second photo)
The only time I've been bitten by a fox was one of this year's orphaned cubs who got mad at me for ignoring him and bit my hand pretty hard! My first response was to make angry fox noises at him like I'd seen vixens do and he immediately rolled onto his back whimpering! He was just a baby though so it was just meant as playful, and after a few weeks of hazing he learned to be much more fearful of people.
I did know one fox, though, who was completely fearless. She literally had zero fear of people. You could walk right up to her in the street and she wouldn't budge. I remember one time seeing a man shouting at her in the street because she blocked his path and wouldn't let him pass her. She also often used to come up to me and grab the bottom of my coat or trousers and pull on them with some force. I was always worried she would bite me or someone else and she's the only fox who ever made me feel uncomfortable to be around. I never tried to hand feed or encourage her near me and as far as I know no one else had either. All her siblings and parents behaved normally. Having known a probable toxo fox I don't believe she had it but it is possible. Either that or some kind of neurological problem because her behaviour just wasn't right. She did successfully rear two daughters who took over the territory from her and they behaved perfectly normal and were very wary of people.