Red Fox (vulpes vulpes)

Foxes have a reputation for being cunning and clever. They are good hunters, and they are happy to scavenge for food too. They are omnivores, meaning that they eat both meat and plants, although their diet is mainly meat.

Traditionally foxes were found in the countryside, but nowadays you are more likely to see one in towns and cities. Their urban populations have grown as they have adapted to the urban habitat and found different sources of food to scavenge. Foxes tend to come out at dawn and dusk to hunt for food or scavenge in bins. 

A male fox is called a dog, and a female is known as a vixen. They come from the same family of animals as dogs and wolves. They tend to have one litter of cubs a year, usually four or five cubs. They are born in the spring and are cared for by both parents until the autumn when they go it alone.  

In the past, wolves would have hunted foxes, but in the 1700s wolves were hunted to extinction in the UK, leaving foxes with no natural predators - except humans, of course.