Wildlife Advice
Red Fox Facts & Advice
Red foxes are intelligent, adaptable wild mammals often living quietly alongside us in towns, cities, gardens and countryside.
When to get helpMeet the Red Fox
Red foxes are highly adaptable animals found across the UK. They are skilled hunters and scavengers, helping to keep ecosystems balanced by feeding on small mammals, birds, insects, worms, fruit and carrion.
🌙 Mostly Nocturnal
Foxes are usually most active at night, but it is not always unusual to see one during the day — especially during breeding season or when adults are feeding cubs.
🦊 Clever & Adaptable
Foxes can thrive in both rural and urban areas, using gardens, parks, railway lines, woodland edges and green corridors to move around safely.
🐾 Family Life
Fox cubs are usually born in spring and depend on their parents for food, warmth and protection while they grow and learn vital survival skills.
🍃 Important Scavengers
Foxes play an important role in the natural clean-up crew, eating carrion and helping to control populations of rodents and other small animals.
When to Call for Help
A fox may need rescuing if it is:
- Clearly injured, limping badly or unable to stand
- Caught in netting, fencing, wire or a snare
- Collapsed, weak, unusually still or unresponsive
- Covered in flies, fly eggs or maggots
- Showing severe mange with open wounds or heavy hair loss
- A young cub found alone, cold, injured or crying for long periods
How You Can Help Foxes
Simple, wildlife-friendly choices can reduce the risks foxes face in gardens and urban spaces.
Lift or remove garden netting when not in use to prevent foxes becoming trapped.
Check sheds, garages and outbuildings before closing them, especially during cub season.
Never use glue traps or snares, as they can cause severe suffering to wildlife.
Keep chemicals, oils and pest control products secured and out of reach.
Drive carefully at night, particularly near parks, fields, woodland and quiet residential roads.
Help Us Care for Foxes
Foxes admitted to our rescue may need emergency treatment, pain relief, medication, specialist food, safe housing and careful rehabilitation before release.
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