Murder in the wood

It’s early morning and there is chill in the air, as a northerly breeze clatters the tree branches against each other; along the woodland edge. You need to wrap up snugly to stay warm.

Suddenly a scream, from within the wood, fills the moment. A scream, which makes the hairs on you back of your neck stand up and brings back memories of old Hammer Horror movies. A second ear piercing scream, from the same spot, reverberates around the wood. I am beginning to think that there is something altogether sinister going on within Foal Hurst Wood. Senses on full alert, I listen intently for the slightest sound. Is someone really being murdered in my local nature reserve? But it’s silent now.  

Gradually, step by slow step I tip toe along the path, in the direction of the sound, trying not to stand on any fallen twigs and alert the murderer to my presence. There it is again, a blood curdling scream, just off to the right.  Just what is going on? Shit, this is scary!

Suddenly, through the trees, I see the murderer!!!

Small in stature, with a russet red coat, writhing in the leaves, the murderer and his victim are intertwined and now I see why the screams are so persistent. For what I am looking at is two foxes, joined together in the final act of mating!

Mid December – early February is the time when foxes mate and a painful mating it is, for once copulation has started it is not unusual for the couple to become locked together in the most delicate of areas and its painful !

The screams are from both the female and male, as they try to separate and watching it makes your eyes water.

Looking at the photo below, you do wonder just how they got locked in that position. But that’s the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) for you.

Co-joined foxes during mating (www.channel4.com)

Eventually they escape from their predicament and go their separate ways. In a few weeks the vixen will have found a den to her liking and new life will be born into the world. The cubs stay underground with the vixen for company and the dog fox brings food to the den. By early May the cubs start to play outside and then you can enjoy seeing the family at play.

Up until the 1940, foxes were creatures of the countryside, but slowly they discovered that there was easy food to be found in towns and cities and so a modern, closer connection with humans began. Estimates of the current UK fox population tend to be in the region of 250,000-300,000 (pre breeding), with around 330,000 cubs born each year. Road deaths are estimated around 300,000 each year, so you can see the car is the foxes greatest ‘predator’. 

Paddock Wood has followed the modern fox trend and there are many to be found around the town. Good places to view them are any of the sports fields in the town, the old church yard, the bins near the food restaurants and supermarkets, open topped waste bins in the town, along the railway track and your own back garden, if you feed the birds during the winter. They are generally nocturnal, but as they have become less fearful of humans, they can also be seen in the daytime. For many years an elderly neighbour of mine was unable to look after his back garden, which became a massive bramble patch.It was a great place for a fox to rest up in the day time and every evening ‘my fox’ came into the garden looking for tit bits.

Why should foxes hang around in these places and not in woodland and open fields? Because food is easier to find in urban areas and it’s far more nutritious, for our food waste is high in calories and it doesn’t run away! The sports fields are also great places after a rain shower, for at this time earthworms, which are often 20-30% of a foxes diet, come to the surface and are easy to catch, if you are a hungry fox :-).

So what is likely to happen to the fox population as Paddock Wood expands ? Well more houses = more gardens = more feeding opportunities. At least far more than the open farmland & countryside provides! So I predict that the future will not only result in a greater human population for the town, but also more foxes as well.

A tip for all these new home owners, who might also have young families;  plus also for the head teacher of the planned for new primary school.  As the Paddock Wood Athletics Club found out in 2015, when they constructed a new long jump pit at Putlands (see http://www.courier.co.uk/Fox-problems-Paddock-Wood-athletics-track/story-26238079-detail/story.html)  foxes love sand pits!

Just as you might prefer to use nice soft toilet paper, then foxes equally like nice soft sand on their bum :-).