The fox family

There has been much fox activity over the past week. We think there are five foxes: Rita, her mate whom we’ve named Ted, and three cubs. The good news is we’ve managed to get some medication into Rita. It wasn’t me but one of the other volunteers, Theresa, who stayed out until 11pm waiting for Rita then when she appeared, Theresa mixed the medicine into some dog food and watched Rita eat it. Unfortunately Rita only ate half of it but we’re hoping this is enough as she’s very small and skinny. We should see an improvement in the next two to three weeks if it has worked.

Last night Rita appeared on camera and I felt she looked better already. Obviously the fur will take months to grow back but she seemed to have more energy. My wildlife camera detects motion and then records for the next 20 seconds so I end up with lots of 20 second clips. I decided just to combine all the 20 second clips into one movie. This is just the activity from last night. You’ll see at around 11:45pm Rita is eating with one of her cubs and then two other heads appear under the gate. The cubs are very cute. One of them has a stumpy tail for some reason. We still haven’t named the cubs – any suggestions?

Rita will have had a very tough time feeding three cubs so it’s not surprising that her body is wrecked and suffering. Hopefully now they’re eating solid food she can get her health back. Ted the dad has been doing a good job of hunting and taking food back to the den. I have seen him running off with a bird in his mouth a couple of times.

Yesterday we spotted another bowl that looks like it has had food in it recently so we think someone else may also have been feeding them. It warms my heart to know there are so many Aberdonians who care for our wildlife.