UKH

We have a fox den in our garden. I imagine it's pretty well established: certainly it was there when we moved in three years ago. Although a bit of a surprise to me at first, my wife convinced me to live and let live, and I must say they've not really been a problem. The activity around the den and its entrance seem pretty seasonal anyway, and last year I think they must have raised cubs elsewhere as there was very little sign of them. 

This year however, they're back with a vengeance and have dug up about (total guess) 60kg of soil and sprayed it over my lawn as they are presumably expanding their subterranean living facilities and widening the hole's entrance. I feel like I need to draw the line somewhere, and while I have no wish to harm or kill them, I'd like humanely to get them to eff off and stop ruining my lawn. I don't want to just shovel all the soil back in the hole in case pups get trapped inside (is that a realistic concern? Wouldn't they, or their mum, just burrow back out?), and they might just repeat the excavation the next night anyway. 

Anyone on here have any experience with this sort of carry on? With any luck the little blighters are keeping the rats at bay around my gaff...and our bins are left alone, so I don't particularly view them as a pest to be eliminated, but I'm a bit concerned at a) the soil mess, b) the occasional turd on my lawn, c) whether their tunnels could create a dangerous weakness under the (substantial stone) garden wall that divides my property from the neighbours', d) whether they are actually pests that shouldn't be accommodated in the distinguished grounds of my S7 property. 

I read this book once.

The sad conclusion is that you will not win:

https://tinyurl.com/y59bkbkl 

Class!

Ooh I may need to read that... the beginning is genius. 

Personally I think you should think yourself lucky. I would love to have wildlife in the garden like that.

If it were me I would try to get some cameras set up to follow what they are up to

I understand they can be a bit destructive, but I would think the solution to the recent excavation is to remove the excess soil from your garden or maybe top the flower beds up.... they won't need to dig every year, and unless they are creating an entirely new burrow they won't encroach on lawn any further once they've made their home improvements

Thanks for the reply. Yes, I rather wish I had some BBC natural history style tech to send a camera down there or something. I’m very curious as to the extent of it. 

You’re probably right. I should just spread the soil out. I hope there’s not much more though. 

Here’s where (some of) my lawn used to be: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p38wn8s9m1vvano/2019-02-20%2008.35.52.jpg?dl=0

Having had our garden (very loose description) bulldozed by sangliers, I can sympathize with your plight. We put an electric fence around ours. Now I realise that foxes could easily tunnel underneath but it could really piss them off as they wouldn't be free to just come and go as they please, and encourage them to look elsewhere. 

Edit: worked fine for us. We heard a few squeals for the first few nights but have had no problems since.

Get some wifi security cameras and set them up for motion detection. 1080p sensors.

You should get some cracking footage.

That's not that bad - from your description I was imagining a huge area covered in soil! If it was me, I'd wait for them to stop/slow down digging and then spread the soil elsewhere. And get some cameras. Lucky you!

Out of interest, what surrounds your garden? Just curious why they would choose to set up home there and not nearby. Perhaps it's a quiet oasis in a noisy area?

Ha! Well, I may have over-guesstimated the amount of earth shifted....

It's a pretty quiet street in Sheffield (S7), a mix of detached and semis with fairly large gardens. So, no particular reason why ours and not someone else's garden as far as I can tell. We're a couple hundred meters from Ecclesall Woods where they'd have a lot more space....but probably more disturbance from dogs and other fox competition. 

It is quite cute when the pups come out to play, so we'll live and let live.

Cubs, surely?

Oh yes, you're right, cubs. 

And don't call me Shirley. 

Brill! Win win!

Get Sajid Javid to deport them.

From your photo, yes they have made rather a mess but if you can I would certainly try to live and let live.

Urban foxes are common enough but I would be proud to have them sharing my garden. As others have said I would expect the mess to be short lived, whilst they make good and damage after leaving the den vacant last year.

I reommend you encourage them and live with something totally amazing. Anyway, it sounds like they may have been there before you.

You could invest in a trail camera and see what they get up to at night.

Dave

I remember running through some woods around the edge of a field in the nice evening sunlight a couple of years ago, when I saw some movement in front about 10m away. I stopped and slowly walked up, and three very pretty red cubs looked back at me. I leant against the tree and watched them for a few seconds, until they disappeared down their hole. One of them popped its head out of another hole closer to me, took a sniff, and went back down. About half a minute later all three came out again and started playing, about 2-3m away from me, and carried on as if I wasn't there for a good 10 minutes. It was beautiful to watch and to be so close without upsetting them. And even better, on the run home in the dusk I saw a badger too.

If you get any nice photos of them, care to post a few here?

Bet that fouled up your PB

Nearly a year ago I came across a deer just stood in the path, then I realised it had a young fawn with it, then I realised it had two fawns. Watched them gently trot off through the woods, then carried on with my run. Uplifting.

Sure thing. 

Recompense

For all my crimes of self defense

Sorry. I've been singing this since i read the title.

i may well have missed a post, but what I'd like to know is how they've responded to you when you are around the place. Do they hide or just ignore you? Do you ever leave any food for them ? I have a fox that regularly makes the round in winter (permanent snow Chamonix) and leave any scraps out for him. He (it's a dog) seems to just accept that's all part of his life and shows no fear. I only fear for the cats but they don't seem worried. 

We don't leave food out for them and try not to interact really. We watch from the house at dusk, when they often come out and mooch around the garden before heading out for the night. Over a period of months we watch the cubs get bigger, and then they bugger off it seems. This is in previous years. Last year for example, when there was a lot of snow, it was fun to see the trails they'd left overnight. It's interesting that they seemed to follow the exact same 'path' out and home. i.e. not heading off one way and coming back 12 inches to the left, or around the garden or whatever, but exactly retracing the steps every time.

I've not seen them in the flesh this year, but am obviously aware that they're back in the den from the mess on my lawn. Coming from more urban areas in the south where they tend to be bin-raiding pests I have an instinctive disinclination towards them, but they seem to cause no great bother here. I dare say they're killing neighbours' chickens, raiding their bins etc, but they don't seem to bother us.....aside from my lawn whinge. 

Given your location, I suspect their diet and lifestyle is rather more natural than the average urban fox.

Personally I would avoid trying to tame them, as once they lose their natural fear of people they risk becoming a nuisance (or danger) to people. I would also avoid feeding, as you don't want them to become reliant on human support and lose the ability to hunt for themselves