Chloe Wallis
The Scouting Fox
Public - Sustainable South West
Abstract
My street happens to neighbour a small flooding plain, and over the twenty years my family have lived there, it has seen little of anyone from the local council. Consequently, it became a wonderful, overgrown home for various animals alike: deer, foxes, rabbits, badgers, and so on. To the dismay of the local residents, however, the council suddenly turned their attention to the plain, and cut the entire field to the ground over the most recent winter; and suddenly, the wildlife that had been residing, reproducing, and disturbed only by dog-walkers over the past two decades, was left with a flat, open field.
Later on, we discovered that a couple of foxes had managed to claim some of remaining territory that was left (a small selection of bushes at this point), even though food for them was significantly scarce. Over the particularly cold period, my father took to making sure to save edible leftovers - Sunday roast's remains, stale dog biscuits, bones - and dropping them in the plain. Over the weeks, the foxes became smart to this and learned to greet us, as photographed. My father stopped this practice with the introduction of warmer weather and, sure enough, we have since spotted a much bigger group of foxes in the area.
