002 – Are Foxes Dangerous?

Here in the UK, we had a small flurry of media stories where foxes were believed to have ‘attacked’ humans, primarily adults. Still, one report claimed that 9-month-old twin girls were attacked in their cot. We wanted to look deeper into this and ask the question – Are Foxes Dangerous?

Firstly, the timing of these stories raised many suspicions for me. Between 2010 and 2013, several media stories claimed urban fox attacks. During the same period, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government had opposite views, with the Conservatives led by Prime Minister David Cameron supporting a return to Fox Hunting (a note of some relevance). Cameron received donations worth around £3 million per annum from the Pro Fox hunting community) The Deputy PM, Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, opposed a return to fox hunting. Still, the UK coalition parliament remained in a deadlocked stalemate.

During this period, five media stories appeared with claims that people were being attacked and injured by urban foxes. A common theme was that the fox had entered the house and bitten them while they were sleeping. In none of the cases were any witnesses to the events.

Also, at the same time, several Conservative politicians, notably the then Mayor of London – Boris Johnson, called for a return to fox hunting to reduce the urban fox population. They had overlooked that Fox hunting, even when legal, did not occur in urban areas. It would be tough to imagine packs of hounds with mounted riders chasing foxes through our urban centres, such as London, Birmingham and Manchester.

As with many issues linked to fox hunting, there wasn’t a clear conclusion to be considered, and as ever, the evidence was negligible at best, yet the anti-hunting community were once again forced into defending foxes from these allegations.

For reference and balance, here are links to some of the media articles from that time:

1. Nightmare BBC News 7 June 2010
2. woman’s Telegraph 19 June 2010
3. separate The Mail 3 July 2010
4. Parents of toddler bitten by Fox describe ‘Brave little boy” The Telegraph 22 June 2010
5. Angler was scarred for life by a fox that bit his face. The Mail 4 November 2012

And nearly two years later, the Sun ran its pair of Fox bite stories…

1. woman’s The Sun
2. Terror as fox bites toddler and tries to drag him away…            

DO FOXES POSE A HEALTH RISK IN MY GARDEN
There is no known case of people catching diseases from foxes or their droppings in Britain: you are more likely to see an infection from your pet cat or dog.

FAMILY LIFE
Most people who have seen a fox have met just one animal. Indeed, foxes are considered solitary animals since they travel and hunt independently. This is not to say that they avoid other foxes but to exemplify that they do not hunt in packs like other canids, such as wolves. For a long time, it was believed that foxes lived a solitary life, meeting only during the mating season, but now we know this is untrue.

The dominant male and female fox form a pair that may last for life, i.e. foxes are generally monogamous. The pair travel, hunt and feed independently but occasionally meet briefly or for extended periods, during which they play or groom each other. In some areas, such as in urban areas, it is common for some other adult foxes to be present in addition to the breeding pair. These additional animals (sometimes called helpers) are subordinate to the dominant team. Generally, they are the couple’s offspring, which remain with their parents past the typical dispersal age when the family should break up. So, in certain conditions, foxes live in social groups rather than solitarily.

Foxes are territorial animals that will defend their area against other foxes. That said, using scent marking to delimit their own space is a very effective way of communication, and neighbours usually avoid meeting each other. If neighbours meet, these encounters are generally benign, avoiding direct fights. Foxes are more aggressive towards strangers rather than other neighbouring foxes. Because of this territorial behaviour, if a fox is removed for a length of time from its territory, another fox will move in. This means that eliminating one animal from an area does not eliminate the presence of foxes.

WILL FOXES ATTACK MY DOG OR CAT
This is extremely unlikely. Foxes avoid dogs, even small dogs because dogs kill many foxes. So, it is much more likely that your dog will attack the fox, not vice versa. Attacks on cats are equally rare: cats and foxes are roughly the same size, and cats can defend themselves against foxes. So, it is hardly surprising that foxes generally give cats a wide berth and flee when threatened by a cat.
Occasionally, tiny kittens are killed, but this is extremely rare. Keeping your cat indoors at night dramatically reduces the chances of encountering a fox. There are also other benefits: cats kept in at night are healthier, live longer, and kill less local wildlife.
There are many cats and foxes in the UK, and losing a cat to a fox is infrequent. Cats kill cats, and cats can be run over; foxes will eat a dead cat as they are the sanitation workers of the wild and clear up carrion.

FOXES & CHILDREN
In June 1973, The Sunday Times carried an article warning about the threats posed by urban foxes. However, the evidence is that no child in Britain has been killed or severely injured in the 80 years since foxes colonised our cities. There are occasional relatively minor incidents involving foxes and children, invariably described in the press as an “attack”. However, it is implausible that a fox deliberately seeks out a child to attack it. In contrast, every year, children are severely injured, maimed, and killed by dogs, very often their pets and not just the larger or more dangerous breeds. The risk posed by dogs vastly outweighs the threat posed by foxes.

DO FOXES HUNT IN PACKS
No, they don’t. Unlike wolves, foxes are solitary hunters, which means that even if they may form groups in some areas, they hunt for food independently. Fox cubs may sometimes be seen playing with bits of food, but this is simply a ‘game’, and adult foxes have never been reported hunting together. Very occasionally, cubs can be seen hunting with the vixen.

So, what animals are most likely to bite you in the UK?

We have used the NHS website to source this information. The NHS website states: The three most common causes of bites are:

1. 80% of bites treated by the NHS are Dog bites
2. 15% of bites treated by the NHS are Cat bites
3. 5% of bites treated by the NHS are human bites

Further into the report, the NHS states: It is hard to estimate how common bites are as records are usually only kept of tastes that were serious enough to require hospital treatment, which in England is around 6,000 cases of dog bites and 2,500 cases due to other bites, including human. And for accuracy and clarity, the NHS does not mention Fox Bites in the report.

So, let’s analyse the figures provided by the NHS. The total number of bites that required Hospital treatment in England is 8500. The data shows that around 6000 of these are dog bites. This leaves the other 2500 ‘other bites’ with Cats responsible for 1875 and human bites at 625.

To put that into context, Adders, the only venomous snake in the UK, bites around 100 people a year. Suppose we are to believe the five media stories from 2010 and consider that they all happened in the year’s second half. In that case, we expect to see at least ten fox bite incidents annually in the UK. Except for the two Sun reports, Fox attacks have not been reported nationally in the UK since 2015. It is suspicious that Foxes would mount a sustained attack on people across the UK for six months and then return to low-level or no attacks afterwards.

Let’s conclude based on facts – As a UK resident, you are 600 times more likely to be bitten by a dog, 187 times by a cat and 62 times more likely to be bitten by another human than a fox!

Further reading The University of Bristol Study of Red Foxes. The behavioural ecology of red foxes in urban Bristol Dr Philip J Baker, Stephen Harris

University of Brighton Changes in the Distribution of Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Urban Areas in Great Britain: Findings and Limitations of a Media-Driven Nationwide Survey Prof Dawn Scott, Maureen Berg, Bryony Tolhurst, Alienor L.M. Chauvenet, Graham Smith, Kelly Neaves, Jamie Lochhead, Dr Philip J. Baker

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