Fox Cam is back , and one of the big benefits of  filming our foxy visitors is getting an idea of just how health our local urban fox population is. Being a fox is a hard , life expectancy is lot shorter than most people think and while a healthy fox can live for a number of years , similar to a domestic dog , the harsh reality is an urban fox will probably not live longer than two to three years. There is the obvious danger with traffic ,  plus disease and in the following short videos four out of the seven foxes visiting our garden have obvious health issues, from injured limbs , damaged vision and mange.

A fox with the first signs of mange around the tail

One eye has bee visiting the garden for a few months now , his damaged left eye doesn’t seem to hinder him.

This fox has a problem with his left rear leg

And this fox has a problem with his right rear leg.

Last year we tried to rescue GG , a young fox with a severe case of mange . Tablets in the food hadn’t had any effect . Attempts to lure GG into two different type of cages failed and in the end he was caught in our back garden after a mammoth four hour stand off and then chase around the garden for a further half hour. Ultimately we were to late ,despite our best efforts and Gg died at the rescue centre a week later.

Hopefully the limping foxes will recover on their own, one eye seems to be coping just fine, just have to hope the mange doesn’t spread.