Fox rescue centre
We meet the amazing team who rescue, rehabilitate and return abandoned cubs and poorly foxes to the wild
At the entrance of the wood, it’s a tense moment as the door is opened on a pen containing nervy fox cubs. Emerging tentatively, sniffing out their surroundings, everyone breathes a sigh of relief as the gang suddenly find their courage and start bolting round the trees like hyperactive children.
This is a sight the staff and volunteers of The Fox Project see time and again and it’s what makes it worth all the sleepless nights, the worry of injuries and infections and the painstaking hours of care they go through to get to the point where a group of foxes are released back into the wild. The place where they should be.
The Fox Project began in
1991, initially not as a rescue charity, but as a helpline where people could ring for advice on dealing with foxes in their gardens rather than contacting councils or pest controllers who would sadly sometimes destroy the animal.
However, once The Fox Project went into the Yellow Pages, the charity received calls asking not just for advice, but also for somewhere to take injured or sick foxes that they’d found.
With a background in wildlife conservation, Trevor Williams, who founded the charity, decided to take in the handful of foxes they’d been asked to rescue. But over the years, that handful turned into a few hundred and today The Fox
‘Once each cub is strong enough that’s when the exciting time comes to release them back into the wild’
Project operates a wildlife hospital and three mobile ambulances, run by a team of staff and volunteers, to rescue as many foxes as possible in the South East area.
From foxes who’ve become tangled in garden netting to those who’ve contracted mange, a common infection that strips their hair and can be fatal if left untreated, The Fox Project takes in any fox in distress and works to make them well.
Fox cubs, too, are a huge part of their work and each year they take in around 300 babies, who have been found by members of the public, separated from their mums.
“Sometimes Mum has died or she’s not experienced as a mother and doesn’t get what she’s meant to do, so she leaves her baby,” says Trevor, who now runs the cub unit with his wife, Sue. “Or sometimes, she’ll deliberately leave a cub if she thinks it’s unwell and not going to survive.”
In Trevor’s cub unit, foxes are fed through the night
and cared for until they’re stronger. Then they’ll usually be placed into artificial groups that mimic the family group of siblings you’d get in the wild.
This process is hugely important to encourage them to rely on each other and not get too attached to humans. To make this bond even stronger, the group will regularly be placed in different foster homes so they can learn to befriend each other, rather than their human foster mum.
“When making an artificial group of foxes, you have to make sure there’s a natural pecking order so there’s not more than one really assertive fox in a group, otherwise you’ll have constant fights over who is top dog,” says Trevor. “Funny as it sounds, it does seem we are slightly better than the foxes at putting together a group.” Once the family members are bonded and each cub is strong enough, that’s when the exciting time comes to release them back to the wild, which is always a magical experience. “One of my favourite releases was with a group made up of four brothers from the same litter and one extra cub we added, who we called Carter,” says Sandra Reddy, hospital director at The Fox Project, who oversees the treatment and some of the releases into the wild.
“When we opened the pen, the four brothers were full of life and started jumping round in the ferns. But Carter was having none of it and just stayed in the pen, looking grumpy. Then all of a sudden, the group seemed to have this collective consciousness and from all directions, jumping hither and thither, they all ran off shoulder to shoulder like a bulldozer into the bracken. It was phenomenal to watch.”
Today, The Fox Project is trying to raise funds to get their own wildlife
‘Foxes are so wonderful because each has its own unique personality – they’re just a joy to work with’
hospital – as they currently share a building with another animal charity – as well as extending the rescue area they cover. They’re also continually on the hunt for more volunteers, especially those that can help foster foxes before they’re released into the wild. Anyone who’s good with cats is usually more than experienced to deal with foxes, say Trevor and Sandra. But most of all, they just want to celebrate and champion this beautiful, but sometimes misunderstood animal.
“Foxes are so wonderful because each has its own unique personality and they’re just a joy to work with,” says Sandra. “I find them endlessly fascinating – you never stop learning from them.”
■ If you would like to find out more about The Fox Project, call 01892 824111 or visit www.foxproject.org.uk If you’d like to donate, send a cheque payable to ‘The Fox Project’ to: The Lodge, Kings Toll Road, Pembury, Kent TN24BE