Are Foxes Cats?

The fox has always been known as "the cat-like canid" and for good reason.

 "THE FIRST FOX KNOWN TO FISH FOR FOOD" That's how the headline read and it was accompanied by this photo and the following account.

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In March 2016, two researchers in Spain watched as a male red fox stalked and caught ten carp over a couple of hours. The event seems to be the first recorded instance of a fox fishing, the researchers say.

The discovery makes red foxes just the second type of canid - the group that includes wolves and dogs - known to hunt fish.

“Seeing the fox hunting carp one after another was incredible,” says ecologist Jorge Tobajas. “We have been studying this species for years, but we never expected something like this.”

Tobajas and his colleague Francisco Diaz-Ruiz stumbled across the fishing fox while surveying a site for a different project. The fox first caught their attention because it didn’t immediately flee when it spotted them. Seizing the opportunity, the researchers decided to hide nearby and see what the fox was up to.

Their curiosity turned to excitement after the fox caught its first fish. “The most surprising thing was to see how the fox hunted many carp without making any mistakes,” Tobajas says. “This made us realise that it was surely not the first time he’d done it.”

Instead of immediately eating all of the fish, the fox hid most of its catch and appeared to share at least one fish with a female fox, possibly its mate.

Fish remains have been spotted in the scat of foxes before but scientists weren’t sure whether the foxes had caught the fish themselves or were simply scavenging dead fish. This research confirms that some foxes fish for their food.

For Tobajas, the fishing fox is an example of how much scientists still don’t know about the natural world, even for a species that live fairly close to humans.

“The red fox is a very common species and is in many cases a bit hated,” he says. “Foxes can sometimes attack pets or livestock and are considered a pest in many places. But observations like this show us that it’s a fascinating and very intelligent animal.”

(The study was published in the journal ‘Ecology’.)

Now that is an interesting story and a few months ago a video clip popped up on Face Book of an angler in Italy who was somewhat surprised when a fox came out of undergrowth and watched his fishing line -and eventually got a couple of fish for its 'efforts'. The suspicion was that the vixen had young nearby and this was an easy meal to take back. However, although curious, rather like the proverbial cat, wild foxes tend to keep a distance from humans and yet this particular fox knew exactly what the angler was doing, which end of the line to watch and it waited for a fish to be given. That in itself shows that the fox was no stranger to fishermen and had received fish before.

The old fox books (most modern ones are only reciting dogma) tell you a lot about foxes and so if you know foxes you know that fishing is not rare just rarely photographed.

Foxes are good swimmers and in the past that helped some evade hunts. They are intelligent and will soon spot food sources -it's a matter of survival. Foxes living in the mountain areas had prey that was found on mountains -hares, rabbits etc.. Those living on coastlines would scavenge "sea food" washed ashore and there is such a thing as a crab eating fox (The crab-eating fox (Cerdocyon thous), also known as the forest fox, wood fox, bushdog (not to be confused with the bush dog) or maikong, is a species of medium-sized canid endemic to the central part of South America since at least the Pleistocene epoch).

Combine shallow streams or rivers and fish then no carnivore is going to pass up any potential meal.  So, like cats, foxes have no problem with eating fish.

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When I posted a photograph of a fox resting up in a tree a few years back it got the same reaction from people as the original newspaper article did. People could not believe -a fox in a tree? It had to be a ginger cat. A digitally altered photograph? It was not. Just as the ones above and below are not. Genuine -foxes climb trees and other things.
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In fact, foxes used to climb trees to evade hunts -as can be seen in this old illo.

And, I need to point out, foxes are not the only wild canid that can climb a tree. The raccoon dog, which is in this country (please, if you see one do not report it as DEFRA has a kill policy based on no research and I have heard of one trapped and killed and there was no scan for a chip to see whether it was an escaped pet or not) is also known to be fond of tree climbing.

Raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) (c)2022 respective copyright owner.

So you see the fox has a few cat-like qualities other than its hearing and night vision. People seeing the swift-moving fox at night often tend to think that they saw a cat. It is one reason why urban foxes may have been ignored for so long. In the old days refuse bins (trash cans) would get tipped over or refuse pulled all over the place and "a bloody cat" was held responsible.

Just as there is anecdotal evidence suggesting there were fox feeders in the 19th century on -some "on hunt territory" so there is anecdotal but stronger evidence of urban foxes and well before the official "1930s" date given in dogma.

Over the years I have had to rescue foxes cornered and receiving "rough treatment" from various cats. The myth of foxes being aggressive toward cats is just that and there are many videos out there of cats chasing foxes. The semi feral cat living next door used to attack foxes and even had to be pulled off the back of one that it was trying to deliver a "nape bite" (or "kill neck bite) to. No wonder foxes vanished from the area!

And now, in Downing Street itself, we have No. 10s cat, in front of the media, dealing with a fox that had dared enter his territory.

Note the fox's reaction to the confrontation -it arches its back to make itself look bigger and ward off (unsuccessfully) an attack; the same thing you see cats do in similar situations.

It's lucky we know foxes are canids rather than felids!