I see a lot of references to Foxes and Fox poo on this site. It made me wonder how common are foxes in the UK. Is it quite common to see one? I don't think I have seen more than a half dozen in my life here in the States. They are certainly here, and not really uncommon, but being nocturnal we don't see them much. I suppose people with free range chickens see a lot more. Coyotes seem to be much more common. There are places where you can hear packs many nights, although they are more heard than seen. They do wander around some in the daytime though. People with cats or small dogs need to be a little worried about them. They seem to avoid big dogs like Labs for the most part. Eastern Coyotes are a fairly recent phenomenon and are significantly larger than the original Western variety. Some are thought to be Coyo/dog or Coyo/wolf crosses.
It depends where you go. There are loads round my parents' place, which is suburban Surrey. If we walk to the local pub on an evening, a few hundred metres up the road, we always place a little bet on how many foxes we'll see. It's normally at least two or three.
They are extremely common, yes. Although you see them much, much more in urban and suburban areas because urban foxes are not very wary of humans. We seem to be overrun with them in London, although I did just look up the numbers and actually many more foxes live in the countryside than the cities so it must just be that you see them more in the cities. Certainly, a large fox walks down my garden (on the wall) every morning, and I pick up fox poo in my garden along with the dog poo! As puppies, both my dogs were scared of the foxes. Charlie not so now, Betsy is still wary but getting used to them.
There are a lot round here were have urban badgers too. My dogs really hate the foxes. Moo would kill any she could catch
Very common where I live. I see them in our back garden (just a small suburban plot) very frequently. I also see them in our small town centres quite often - mostly early morning or evening and usually only one at a time. They're harmless to people and dogs. Molly wants to chase them if I don't stop her.
Charlie wouldn't chase a fox - but he doesn't chase any animals at all (I never let him, and I think all his chase drive was diverted to balls and dummies very early in his life - unlike Betsy who I am very much struggling with the 'no chase' rule!). He is 'on his toes' when we see them though. Not all that much, because we see them so very often. He used to bark at them though, and he almost never barks. It was just about the only thing that would make him bark as a puppy. Betsy was scared, and now is just wary. She would just want to go back inside if the foxes were near when I took her out for a wee. Now she is ok to do a wee, but still wants to go back in quickly! She hasn't barked at the foxes - surprisingly. (She had a gob on her like the Mersey tunnel when she arrived, but is now much improved.)
I've only ever seen a fox a couple times in my life, compared to many, many sightings of coyotes (and hearing them at night, too). So although we do have them here, they pretty much stay away from people. No urban foxes as far as I know, but coyotes are another matter!
I'm very, very curious about fox poo. You all mention just how awful it is...I need smell-o-vision, I want to know just how bad it is for myself!
I don't think it smells like anything else so it's very hard to try to describe - and I'm not sure I want to try, really. Not that I even think I can recall the smell because I'm always too busy trying not to be sick until I can throw the dog in the nearest body of water. Charlie once rolled in something rotting on the beach that was worse - I was sick. Oh, yuk, yuk, yuk. Best not to think of it too much until the next time and you have to!
I have only had one fox poo incident. That was wen a friend of mine walked my dogs for me. She had to put up with Willow in her car with that stench. Ugh! It is completely indescribable. The smell lasted several weeks, I just couldn't shift it.
Its often black and tar like, sticky snd hard to get out of fur. i can't smell it myself but its very potent . Apparently urban foxes jaws are different from countryside foxes. Their jaws are not as powerful because of their change in diet.
Plenty of foxes where we are. Unlike urban foxes though, they are far shyer. As for the smell - oh boy, it is so strong I always know when a fox has been through the garden during the night, even without it leaving any tell tale signs, simply by the odour it leaves. All the dogs have always responded with high excitement when they smell fox.
I wonder if the smell is a UK thing, because we have plenty of foxes, and their poo is everywhere, but I've never noticed a smell. Then again, none of our dogs have ever rolled in it, they just try to eat it. (I've gotten very fast with a "leave it") though the fox poo here is much firmer and filled with fruit pitts than I've seen described.
I regularly see one trotting down our street in the early morning. Bruce finds fox poo to roll in at least once a week. Cowboy Magic is the answer - no shampoo needed https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cowboy-Mag...8&qid=1477036105&sr=8-8&keywords=Cowboy+magic ...
We have a fair amount of fox poo in Andorra - although it's very rare to see a fox there. The poo doesn't smell just from walking by it, and the dogs (thankfully) very, very rarely pay any attention to it. Like yours, @SevandJack, it's often full of seeds. They do like to roll in fox wee on occasion, though. Which is less disgusting, but still not exactly Chanel.
We have loads of foxes round here but I very rarely see any - maybe just a few times a year. We are right out in the country and they are shy, with lots of woodland for cover. Loads of fox poo (at least, I assume that is what it is... looks like something produced by small-dog-sized creature, very black turds, full of fruit/grain seeds). Pongo has got no interest in it whatsoever (phew), although when he was younger he had a bit of a sniff. I know when a fox has been around because of the VERY STRONG smell they leave behind - acrid and bitter, like smelling salts. It always amazes me that Pongo will blithely ignore it even when his nose is on the ground and he is having a big sniffy day - I suppose it is just so strong it doesn't need attention (like a bright light shining when what you are interested in is the subtle patterns in a picture).
My friend feeds them they all have names like Greta garbo. She moniters their health. I don't really approve of her feeding them for many reasons. She loves them
When we lived in Bournemouth we used to have foxes living in the park one road over. I could hear them at night, sometimes it sounded like someone was being tortured! I would often see them scurrying across the road if I went out at night. Now we've moved somewhere a bit more rural I haven't noticed any (but we've only been there since June). Scully did dive head first into something revolting on Tuesday though, and her head is still a bit whiffy... Fortunately it happened when I was at work and OH dealt with the worst of it
LOL, I asked this on Champdogs some years ago because of reading so many posts about dogs rolling in fox poop and how badly they smelled. For the same reason, we certainly have fox as well and they were a prime rabies carries, along with skunks. We are rural and do see them and knew where a couple of den sites were. One was visiting our back yard this spring and summer, at night, which is a first in 35 years as far as we know. He would call and it did sound like someone, a woman, was being tortured. But I don't think any dog I know has ever rolled in fox poop. Mid February to maybe early April when vixens are in heat we can smell them. We say, "I smell vixen fixin' for some mixin'." It smells very faintly of skunk with some lemon mixed in. So I wonder if fox poop smells like very faint skunk? This is only at mating season we smell them though. At one den site as the dog and I went down the trail I spied two little sets of ears peeking over the mound of dirt up the hillside. The little ears slowly raised up till I could see four little black eyes and two little black button noses. Two little fox kits peeking at us. It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen and a little video clip I hope I can run in my brain all my life.
