The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- John Furner
Urban foxes may be more bold than their country equivalents, but they are not necessarily any more clever.
Researchers spent just over a year studying wild foxes at 104 locations in England and Scotland, leaving the scavengers food in puzzling containers and filming whether they managed to open them.
They rated the locations on how rural or urban they were, based on features including roads, green space and the density of people living there.
The results showed foxes in urban areas were significantly braver, when it came to nudging, pulling, licking or biting containers with tasty treats like deli chicken, honey or dog biscuits inside them.
Their rural cousins were more reluctant to touch the containers.
But the urban foxes were no more likely to figure out how to get inside the containers, suggesting either their street smarts are not as highly developed as some people think – or they don’t bother to use them.
Researchers spent just over a year studying wild foxes at 104 locations in England and Scotland, leaving the scavengers food in puzzling containers and filming whether they managed to open them
Dr Blake Morton, a psychologist and animal behaviourist who led the study from the University of Hull, said: ‘Foxes in towns and cities may not be as clever as we believe.
‘Or they may simply be lazy, as there is so much food lying around in urban areas, they have decided they don’t need to bother finding clever ways to get food which requires effort.
‘Either way, this challenges the long-standing belief that urban foxes are notorious scavengers of other human-made food containers, such as litter and the contents of outdoor bins.
‘Undeniably, litter and outdoor bins can provide at least some urban foxes the opportunity for an easy meal but, for many other foxes, our study shows that their behaviour is much more nuanced.’
Field mice have been found to behave more cleverly in urban areas than rural ones, so researchers wanted to understand if urban foxes, known to raid bird feeders and compost heaps, were also better at problem-solving.
They left out food which foxes could take freely from the ground, which the animals took in every instance.
Foxes in urban areas were significantly braver, when it came to nudging, pulling, licking or biting containers with tasty treats like deli chicken, honey or dog biscuits inside them
But then they left out eight types of fox snack in containers which required actions like pulling open a lid with their mouth, pushing a stick with a paw or barging through a thin foil sheet.The study, published in Animal Behaviour, found that foxes in 96 out of 104 locations acknowledged the puzzles by turning their head towards them, but foxes from only 31 locations touched them.
Meanwhile foxes from just 12 locations gained access to the food, which was left out for around a fortnight on average
Although urban foxes were generally no more likely to problem-solve, foxes in London appeared to be the exception, although this is based on a small number of foxes so more research is needed.
Foxes in the capital may be better at problem-solving because they live in a more fast-paced environment, where they are constantly faced with new challenges.
Dr Morton said: ‘Foxes are renowned for thriving in cities, and our study suggests that bolder behaviour may help urban foxes adapt to such settings.
‘However, just because a fox lives in a city doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll engage in problem-solving.
‘This may mean they are not the wily ‘pests’ some people imagine, and won’t usually be a nuisance to us at all.’
