- Do YOU have pesky fox problems? Email [email protected]
If you live in London, you may have been woken up at night to the blood-curdling sound of fox-mating.
And as the population of the capital grows, it’s no wonder that the number of the wild animals has also risen.
Attracted to bin bags and piles of rubbish, the urban menaces are slowly ‘taking over’ the city – with the more self-confident mammals riding public transport and prowling the streets in broad daylight.
Do YOU have pesky fox problems? Email [email protected]
Perhaps most infuriating is the high-pitched and almost tortured sound of mating which keeps Londoners up at night – among them, the ‘Professor of Pop’, American DJ Paul Gambaccini.
In social media videos, foxes are seen taking London buses during the day, spreading out along the back seats. One animal peers inquisitively at the passenger filming it but remains completely undeterred from its leisurely ride across the capital.
According to the London Wildlife Trust there is an estimated 10,000 urban foxes in London, but this number cannot be reliably counted and can fluctuate.
More foxes have been seen out and about during the day, including lounging on garden furniture and taking a stroll in the street.
Video footage shows one fox sat comfortably basking in the sun on a garden seat.
The camera zooms in on the relaxed animal before it hurriedly runs away across the lawn.
They even seem to have learnt how to cross the road safely and avoid oncoming traffic.
A video shows one fox out in the day peering cautiously from left to right at a road and pausing for cars to pass by.
Once it has deemed the journey safe enough, it trots across the road and creeps underneath a bench before disappearing into a hedge.
Their antics don’t stop at night, however, and it is highly debated whether the sneaky creatures are a positive addition to city life or an annoyance.
Foxes are mainly nocturnal, which makes the daytime adventures in London even more unnatural.
Bins and bags of waste could be drawing them out during the day.
Some London councils have listed information on how to deter foxes from going through rubbish and some even recommend wheelie bins that are fox-proof.
Despite being seen out during the day, Londoners are hearing them often in the evening too.
An amusing video captioned with ‘POV: you live in south London and the foxes are out’ shows the realities many city dwellers are faced with in the night.
A man is peacefully sleeping before being woken up by screams, mimicking the blood-curdling cries that foxes make when they are breeding.
The mating season is between December and February, so Londoners should expect a few more sleepless nights before the noisy animals stop.
Gambaccini told the Daily Mail’s Richard Eden how he was woken up ‘once, maybe twice, a week’.
Do YOU have pesky fox problems? Email [email protected]
Laura Adams is a tech enthusiast residing in the UK. Her articles cover the latest technological innovations, from AI to consumer gadgets, providing readers with a glimpse into the future of technology.
