Out of all the animals that live in the countryside around me it is no doubt the red fox that I have spent most time with over the years. For fox fans, they are some of the most charming, the most beautiful and the most fascinating mammals around and with those qualities it is no surprise that they are highly sought after by wildlife photographers. I have lost count of the number of hours spent waiting for one of them. Over the years I have gotten to know them a lot better but they still manage to outwit me on many occasions. Yet foxes are not only beautiful and smart, they are also extremely useful. Whilst they are omnivore and have, depending on their habitat, a very varied diet ranging from voles, mice and rabbits to insects, worms and berries, ocassionally birds, reptiles frogs or carrion, in the European countryside their preferred meal by a long way consists of small rodents such as voles and mice. As such they are a precious ally for gardners and farmers alike, a single fox can catch between 3700 and 4500 voles and mice in a year, thereby considerably limiting crop damage caused by various rodents.
Sadly these qualities are still not universally recognised, on the contrary, in France, under the pressure of the hunting lobbies, foxes are still considered ”animals likely to cause damage” (a more polite substitute for the term ”vermin” used until recently) in the vast majority of départements. Where they are classed as ”animals likely to cause damage” foxes can be killed one way or another virtually all year round. Luckily a number of associations continue their fight to get the species removed from this list and to get the fox recognised as an essential and useful part of nature, but mentalities are slow to evolve in the right direction. May the following images serve in the same vein.
Once you have spent some time observing these intriguing animals, you just can’t help falling under their spell.
In France between 600 000 and 1 000 000 red foxes are slaughtered every year. To help put an end to this brutal and totally unjustified massacre please sign the petitions below:
