Posted on 21st December 2024
It's that time of the year when you may hear screams and screeches outside during the early hours. It's (probably) nothing to worry about and is likely to be your local foxes as we are approaching the mating season. Foxes mate once a year and the vixen (female) fox is only on heat for 3 days of this period, meaning foxes only have a short window of mating in the year. The mating season sees a lot of calls to us not only due to the method in which foxes mate (they effectively get stuck together for a period after mating to ensure insemination), leading to concern from members of the public that there is a problem, but also due to the fact that it means foxes will be less concerned about dangers around them (i.e. traffic) and more focused on mating, that can result in a lot of road traffic accidents (RTA's). We can only advise people to keep an eye out for foxes running into roads during this time of the year, and to keep to speed limits as well, bearing in mind there are plenty of foxes in urban areas as well as rural areas.
Posted on 6th December 2024
We've recently opened a new online shop on this website which we hope to add more products to over time. At the moment, you can purchase our 2025 calendar as well as 3 different designs of Christmas cards. Just click on the 'charity shop' tab above and you can make your orders from there.
Posted on 29th November 2024
It's been a while since we updated the website, but that isn't to say not a lot has been happening. Over spring/summer 2024 we succesfully rehabilitated and released over 41 orphaned cubs (spread out into 9 groups). These cubs were taken to soft-release locations where pens were set up/released after acclimitising to the area after several weeks in the pens. These sites were spread out from as far as Dumfries in Scotland, to Alderholt in Dorset.
The circumstances that these cubs were found in vary from being found next to their dead mother, to being found wondering in busy roads, approaching people in the street and in one case, Marcus, was handed into a vets suffering with a broken back leg, which had to be pinned. As a result, he had to stay with us until the leg healed, and then he was able to be mixed into a group and released.
Now that all the cubs have been dealt with/released, we're past the dispersal season when cubs are chased from the territories they were born in by their mothers, in order for them to find their own territories, and we approach the mating season at the end of December. The shorter days, combined with cubs dispering, has resulted in a lot of calls about injured and sick juveniles. At the time of writing, we currently have 5 adult/juvenile foxes in our care.
Posted on 26th February 2023
It's been a busy start to 2023 - we are averaging 1 emergency daily as well as regular call outs requiring traps for sick and injured foxes. Trapping, however, is always a last resort, which we will only carry out for the worst affected foxes. Currently in our care we have a fox (Tempura) who has had to have his left eye removed after a horrific injury in which the eye itself had become punctured and was beyond repair, two very badly affected mange foxes (Stroud and Buddy) and one fox (Phoenix) who is in with us being treated for mange and a huge abscess on her back end which was lanced and cleaned out by our vets. All foxes are doing well, and as of this post, we've admitted 11 adult foxes into the unit who require intensive care/a short stay with us in the first couple of months of 2023. As aforementioned, this is on top of the daily emergency cases we get in - in which foxes are in such a poor state the only thing we can do for them is to provide them with a peaceful end to their lives by getting them to our vets to be euthanised. We have also dealt with some foxes that we've trapped/picked up that have been able to be treated for mange with a long-lasting treatment and then released back home. All in all it's been our busiest start to a year since setting up, and we are just about to enter into the cub season...
Posted on 5th December 2022
Why not help support us by visiting our online shop and purchasing one of our brand new 2023 Fox Rescuers calendars and Christmas cards? You can find our online shop right here: https://www.thefoxrescuers.org.uk/shop
Calendars: £10 inc P&P within UK
Cards (10 pk) - 3 designs: £5 inc P&P within UK
Posted on 13th September 2022
We've had a bit of an influx in cubs coming in with mange lately, with one of the latest being Jacob. We're still attempting to trap his sibling who we are told is in an even worse state than he is. Considering he's in a bad state as is, we dread to think how bad his brother/sister is. We'll do our best to get them into our care and get them sorted though. Jacob has a healthy appetite if nothing else, which will certainly help him with regards to recovery. He's begun mange treatment and we are anticipating a turnaround within 2-3 weeks for him, by which point we hope to have caught his sibling.
25/09/22: Update on Jacob
We are happy to report that Jacob was released back home following successful treatment for mange. His release, along with several other foxes released around the same time as him, can be viewed on our youtube page here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On0NiEFwTLc