In London, the fox has its own ambulance service when it needs help

PADDOCK WOOD, England -- The injured fox is cornered successful a cage, teeth bared and snarling astatine the pistillate trying to assistance it.

Nicki Townsend is unfazed. Wearing lone rubber gloves and an outfit suitable for a yoga class, she approaches with soothing words. “All right, baby," she coos arsenic she deftly drapes a towel implicit his head, grabs him by the scruff of his neck, scoops up his wounded legs and moves him to a cleanable cage.

It’s not the mode her time typically begins, but there’s thing regular astir rescuing foxes.

“You tin ne'er foretell what you’re going to get at,” Townsend said.

While not arsenic disposable arsenic telephone boxes oregon double-decker buses, the reddish fox is simply a fixture successful London, a metropolis not known for its wildlife. But surviving connected the streets, alleys and backmost gardens of a dense municipality situation tin beryllium unsmooth and erstwhile foxes request help, they person their ain ambulance work — and Townsend whitethorn beryllium connected her way.

The foxes didn't invade London truthful overmuch arsenic accommodate and grow their scope inward arsenic the metropolis dispersed to their situation successful the 1930s and suburbs grew.

But radical and the bushy-tailed subordinate of the canine household person not ever lived successful harmony, and the taxon has admirers and adversaries.

For everyone enchanted seeing a fox trotting nonchalantly down their thoroughfare astatine dusk oregon basking successful a sunny backyard, determination are plentifulness who spot them arsenic pests. They poop wherever they like, teardrop into garbage and the vixens successful vigor fto retired terrifying shrieks successful the dormant of wintertime erstwhile attracting a mate.

“It’s similar Marmite with foxes,” Townsend said, referring to the nutrient dispersed that is an acquired and divisive taste. “You either emotion them oregon hatred them.”

The disagreement betwixt the 2 camps led Trevor Williams to recovered what became The Fox Project astir 35 years ago.

Once a bass subordinate successful the stone radical Audience that opened for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, Williams had been progressive successful the run to halt fox hunting erstwhile helium redirected his extortion efforts to the city, wherever foxes were erstwhile routinely killed.

“Because of the myths that person occurred implicit the years, there’s inactive a batch of suspicion astir what foxes mightiness be,” Williams said. “You know, they’re going to wound the baby, they’re going to devour the cat, they’re going to tally distant with your husband.”

The task has since grown from providing accusation connected deterring foxes to rescuing 1,400 a year, including 400 cubs, though lone astir fractional past to beryllium released.

There are estimated to beryllium 15,000 foxes successful London. The task covers a swath of southbound London and its leafy suburbs portion different organizations not devoted solely to foxes grip different parts of the city.

While the omnivores past connected tiny animals, bugs and berries successful the wild, they favour easy scavenged leftovers successful the metropolis and handouts that marque them much babelike connected humans.

Their main municipality menaces are cars, getting snagged successful shot nets oregon getting stuck successful choky spaces. In their effort to get free, they often get nasty abrasions that tin go infected. Many besides endure from mange, a parasitic infestation that leads to each kinds of problems.

Townsend pilots her VW Caddy connected metropolis streets, highways and constrictive lanes that rotation done lush hills, responding to calls astir injured oregon sick foxes oregon cubs that person mislaid their mothers.

She's seen a spot of everything since her archetypal humbling telephone 2 1/2 years agone erstwhile the supposedly injured fox bolted.

“In my inexperience, I chased aft him, which is comical due to the fact that you’re ne'er going to outrun a fox,” she said. “I conscionable retrieve helium ran precise accelerated and I looked silly moving aft him.”

Despite galore challenging situations — she erstwhile managed to rescue a fox that mislaid its footing atop a obstruction and ended upside down astatine oculus level with its paw lodged betwixt boards — she's lone been bitten once.

Her van carries the distinctly musky scent of foxes. The odor becomes unpleasant erstwhile an anxious rider successful a litter of cubs relieves itself enroute to being delivered to a foster attraction pen wherever they volition enactment until being released successful the wild.

“Feel escaped to unfastened the window,” said Townsend, who is accustomed to the stench. “This is simply a stinky job."

On a caller day, she was dispatched to conscionable a heartbroken mates who recovered a cub with a puncture coiled collapsed connected their backmost lawn.

“We thought helium was dormant astatine first, truthful we went to spell and person a adjacent look due to the fact that we emotion them," Charlotte English said. “Then helium conscionable didn’t move, truthful we knew thing was wrong.”

That cub had to beryllium enactment to sleep, arsenic did the big Townsend transferred astatine the commencement of her shift.

Cubs that retrieve are socialized successful packs of 5 until they mature and are past released successful a agrarian determination portion the adults are freed successful the neighborhoods wherever they were found.

Given a 2nd chance, it's not wide however good the foxes fare, due to the fact that they are seldom tracked. A 2016 survey successful the diary Applied Animal Behaviour Science recovered that rehabilitated foxes were much apt to behave arsenic if they had been displaced erstwhile returned to their archetypal territory. They were tracked wandering farther away, perchance exposing them to much postulation and greater stress.

“It is simply a spread successful the cognition and there’s an presumption that erstwhile you merchandise them, they thrive and I deliberation that that presumption needs to beryllium challenged more,” said Bryony Tolhurst, a University of Brighton honorary probe chap and pb writer of the study.

For Townsend, fox deaths are offset by the joyousness of seeing small ones task into the chartless oregon an big darting into a vicinity it instantly recognizes.

“Sometimes they look backmost and radical similar to romanticize that they’re saying ‘thank you,'" she said. "They’re conscionable making definite we’re not chasing aft them.”