‘There are few things I love more than spotting a fox dawdling through the streets on my way home.’ ‘The local butcher used to set aside scraps of meat that would normally go in the bin, and I’d take them to the wood and hand-feed a family of foxes in the early hours of the morning. ‘Years ago, there was a small wood behind the home I grew up in. Terry, 35, lives in Richmond and says he loves foxes. It’s nice to see a bit of wild nature seeping into the urban landscape.’ ‘I think they are a wonderful presence, it always makes me smile to see a fox paddling along a pavement. Paul, 45, has put food out for foxes before. Some London residents do put food out for their neighborhood foxes. ‘Alongside the disturbance from rooting through rubbish and their excessively loud mating they carry various pests and parasites, including toxocara canis. An outbreak of the urban population of foxes today is almost too ghastly to contemplate and the sooner they are removed from our towns and cities the better. Saurav, 36, doesn’t like London’s foxes at all. ‘They now sleep in the flower pots and both my son and I feed one of them by hand! Our dogs get on with them too! Beautiful creatures!’ ‘We have a family of about six to eight foxes that come into our garden three times a day to be fed. ‘However, they like to scream into the night when they are mating, waking the whole street! It also means I can’t have guinea pigs because it’s not safe for them to be around foxes in any capacity.’ She told .uk: ‘They are beautiful creatures and I love coming across one at night. She likes foxes but wishes they were quieter and less predatory. How does London’s human population feel about foxes? We asked some residents to find out.

‘Many people do, however, feed in the same way as we feed birds – more because we like to see them around than because the foxes need any help.’ There is adequate food everywhere for an opportunist like the fox. ‘There is no particular reason to feed foxes. Trevor says there’s probably no need, since foxes are pretty self-sufficient. ‘Their range may be smaller than rural foxes as food is more plentiful in the city and no need to range more widely.’ ‘Urban foxes hunt and find prey as readily as foxes anywhere. Trevor says that the diet of urban foxes doesn’t differ particularly from that of their rural brothers and sisters, although there’s definitely more human food waste available for urban vulpines to consume. ‘The overall population in London is known to have been generally stable for around 40 years despite the national population having fallen by around 40% since the mid-nineties.’ ‘Perhaps the best current population estimate in Greater London (inside the M25) would be around 15,000, having fallen since the annual cub season peak of 20,000.

‘Scientists are continually working to improve models to identify populations of many species, including foxes.

Trevor Williamson, founder of The Fox Project, a charity that rescues and rehabilitates foxes before releasing them back into the wild, told .uk that the urban fox population in London is holding steady. Although some dub urban foxes a ‘menace’ that the city would be better off without and others bemoan the fox’s lack of regard for neatly-planted flowerbeds, others take a more accepting approach.

Are foxes nocturnal