Interloper

Posted By on October 23, 2010

The nights are drawing in, the temperature is dropping, and that makes a more-or-less-regular food source look more attractive to foxes… even those foxes who are new to the area.

I looked out of the window one afternoon a week or so back and saw this:

Yes, okay, a fox on the lawn, not all that unusual — except that when I went to put the food out shortly afterwards, she(?) scarpered off over the back fence. That is unusual these days — our locals will take cover in the bushes but won’t usually leave the garden, because they know there’s about to be food. Also, when she ran off, I could tell she wasn’t one of our usual visitors; all of our regulars have quite darkly-furred tails (with the exception of Mr Half-a-tail from a few weeks ago) and this fox’s tail was considerably paler (and also somewhat less bushy), and she seemed quite a bit larger.

She’s been back quite regularly since and has been having a good go at evicting Ears from her territory; mostly unsuccessfully, I think, although there have been some noisy arguments/communications and one or two face-offs:

I have taken to spreading the food out across the lawn a little more, so that Ears and the interloper (PaleTail) can both get some. Some nights, we have multiple foxes coexisting quite happily while they eat:

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