Headless cubs

[Cedar]

Last year we enjoyed watching a litter of fox cubs grow up in the back garden, which is enclosed and safe from predators except cats. We were looking forward to this year's young, but the first we saw of them was yesterday morning, when a headless cub about 2 months old appeared in the garden, on the route of their usual run. We buried it, and today a second corpse appeared, with the head a short distance away. What is going on? Would adult foxes kill their own young by decapitation, if so, why? We don't have any large dogs nearby.

[Wild-Woman]

Maybe another male fox has moved into the area and is clearing the territory for his own next year.

[Hedge Witch]

I was thinking the same think as WW

I cannot find out whether this does actually happen though, I wonder if anyone has heard of this?

[Wild-Woman]

Foxes have been know to be cannibalistic. I would think that another fox entering an area that it might claim for itself wouldn't only kill other cubs but would also not waste an opportunity of making a meal of them (eventually). I suspect it may cache the body as foxes do with chickens etc. That's why foxes are so successful. Top predators and scavengers.
Fox cub mortality is very high. So all perfectly natural.

[Words]

Disturbing to find, but probably part of the order of things. Slightly related, there was an interesting photo in BBC Wildlife recently which showed a cub feeding on the body of a dead sibling.