foxes and badgers

[foxfan]

hi to you all
hope someone can help with this
for many yrs we have had foxes visiting our garden,
we do put food out for them
for two nights we had a badger visit,it ate the fox food then went round the lawn looking for food,on the second night a fox came into the garden stood watching the badger,then got about three foot away lay down and then shock horror pounced and attacked the badger,i banged loud on the window fox looked up and badger escaped,i have been told its very rare for a fox to do that
any clues anyone many thanks

[Bumblebeebob]

Originally Posted by foxfan

hi to you all
hope someone can help with this
for many yrs we have had foxes visiting our garden,
we do put food out for them
for two nights we had a badger visit,it ate the fox food then went round the lawn looking for food,on the second night a fox came into the garden stood watching the badger,then got about three foot away lay down and then shock horror pounced and attacked the badger,i banged loud on the window fox looked up and badger escaped,i have been told its very rare for a fox to do that
any clues anyone many thanks

It is a bit unusual, the Foxes in my garden always defer to the Badgers. Was it a young Fox perhaps (or a young Badger), unaware of the dangers of attacking a Badger! A Fox would generally come off worse after an encounter with a Badger.

[foxfan]

many thanks for the reply
the fox was the vixen whos had cubs ,we can see her teats
the badger was not a young one,
we thought the badger was unaware of the fox,but maybe it was aware and did not think it was a threat
any way we have stopped putting food out now,
i am not happy about this, but dont want a repeat
the foxes keep coming to look for food but not seen the badger since

[wild_as_kate]

Originally Posted by foxfan

many thanks for the reply
the fox was the vixen whos had cubs ,we can see her teats
the foxes keep coming to look for food but not seen the badger since

Hi foxfan - if she's had cubs it is likely she was just protecting them. It is abnormal for a fox to attack a badger (have you seen the jaws on a badger?) but any female animal with cubs tends to be more aggressive when there is a threat. Badgers can be pretty brutal with young small animals so it is possible he was after her cubs. She was still likely to come off worse brave thing.

As for feeding, they are probably hungry with their babies to feed, but foxes are pretty resourceful so sure they'll be fine with or without.

[foxfan]

Thanks kate
We did wonder if she was protecting her cubs,
though this yr for the first time ever we dont know where the den is

[Digit]

One Hell of a brave Fox.
Sadly we recently lost our Labrador X Rottweiler, all 10 1/2 stone of him and he soon learnt to give Badgers a wide berth, along with Toads as well!

Roy.

[foxfan]

Yes digit
one very brave fox
sorry to hear of your loss
we lost our labrador collie cross last yr aged 17

[Digit]

Our cross was the same age, it's bloody heart breaking!
My son grew up with him and insisted on burying him, which he did with tears streaming down his face!
There's no more faithful companion than a dog.
Mind you he used to frighten the life out of people because of his size.

Roy.

[IdleHands]

Hi,

Surely that is no reason to stop feeding them? Chances are they have argued before over food and will do again and again. The fox is obviously in dire need of some food if she is prepared to defend her regular dinner spot against a badger. Nature will sort it out between the two parties. My money is on the fox in this situation-the badger will not see it as being worth the effort

Cheers,

Idle

[foxfan]

Hi
I dont really think it was about food,we always fed the foxes at 10pm one would come along eat a bit never all of it,infact one brand of food we put out it turned its nose up at lol,
i dont like not feeding them,but i am not prepared to have to maybe cope with a injured fox or badger,
on the bright side i know 3 other people who feed the same 2 that come in our garden.and they dont always eat all that