City Survivor
Rural relocation for rescued Dublin fox cub
A CUB found wandering along the pavements of a Dublin street has been given a new start in life in the Roscommon countryside.
Six-week-old Harold was rescued by a concerned individual who promptly brought it to the attention of the Dublin Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
DSPCA worker, Linda, took charge of the young animal and soon afterwards phoned Foxwatch Ireland for advice on looking after the cub. Peter Akokan outlined the best food to give the cub and what inoculations it would need.
"Linda seemed very concerned about the cub," says Peter, "but I told her not to worry for fox cubs are very easy to feed and house while they are still young. The worrying part is how they will get on once they are released back into the wild."
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| City cub, Harold, given a new home in the country. |
"Linda did a great job with the cub," he adds. "She even took the trouble to stop and pick up road kills like young rabbits and birds. The cub got first class treatment and was in a beautiful condition on arrival to me." It remains uncertain how Harold ended up lost on the streets of the capital. One theory is that he may have ventured too far from an earth in an urban back garden. Cubs can normally find their way back home again so perhaps his earth had been destroyed. Another possibility is that someone was keeping him as a pet and he managed to escape.
Harold, now two months old, is currently going through a process known as a soft release. Food is left in his cage with the door left open and he is coming back for food at night until he can hunt for himself. He is doing very well and has no attachment towards humans at all - apart from his returns for food. By mid-winter he should have fully dispersed and hopefully by then will have secured his own territory.
In the meantime, he will have to avoid all the hazards of a life in the wild. Man is, of course, the greatest cause of death. Gun clubs in the shooting season, foxhunts with hounds and the dazzling headlights of an ever increasing volume of traffic on our roads are just some of the dangers which await Harold.
Disease risks have been greatly reduced through inoculation while starvation is unlikely for foxes are usually quick opportunists with an enormous sense of adventure.
They have a highly developed instinct to survive from a very early age which is why rehabilitation isn't normally a problem for foxes.
