Foxarz!

While I've been away in Japan, there has apparently been an infestation of rabbits in this particular part of the suburban sprawl in which I live. When I was growing up I never saw wild rabbits in the gardens or streets, but now you see them almost every day.

I'm not sure if it's related, but over the past few weeks I've seen a fox out the back. It crosses our garden from the neighbours on the left, goes into the garden two houses down on the right, then heads through the back bushes into a garden in the street behind. Urban foxes are not a new phenomenon, though the news of one entering a house and attacking two baby girls a while back has made people more aware of them. Though I had seen a fox a couple of times in the garden before I went away to Japan three years ago, like the rabbits, the frequency with which I've seen them recently is really surprising.

Today, I was able to take a picture for the first time. My earlier sightings had both occurred in early evening, when the light was growing yellower but sunset was still far off. Today, I saw it in the morning. I wasn't able to get a picture of it in our garden because it caught be by surprise, but I grabbed my camera and took one from the hall window. This is the fox in the garden two doors down.

Click for the larger version (where you can actually see the fox). I've seen the rabbits in the garden as well so I'm wondering if some of them have become a food source for the foxes. Urban foxes are known to have a worse diet than their forest counterparts due to scavenging the crap that humans call food. Or that humans called food three days ago and threw out. I wonder if this guy has cubs somewhere that he's going back to. I find it interesting that he keeps going through these gardens - it might mean he has a den in one of them. The way he was heading doesn't lead to any wild land, though the direction he came from does.

For the time being I shall call him Steve and report if I see him again.