Is it mateing season for the fox and also How do I attract the Local fox into my garden?

     This is a audio of 2 foxes calling to each other. 

 Theres two local foxes in the area and they were more vocal for a few days. Im trying to attract more Wildlife to the garden. So I been wondering if there both calling cause its there mateing season?  and also how I can attract the foxes into the garden at night? 

  • Zo, why do you wish to attract the foxes into your garden ? They are beautiful animals that should be left in the wild. Urban foxes do roam around city centres eating our discarded takeaway food but not everyone appreciates them and feeding them in your garden could cause you problems.
  • I dont want to attract them as pets. only as Wild animals. Im interested in attracting some more interesting nocturnal Wild animals in the garden cause it doesn’t seem like there much nocturnal animals around at the moment. I Dont know much about foxes and Im interested in if theres a way you can attract them like you can attract other interesting wild animals like hedgehogs for example. At the moment it just seems to be birds and hedgehogs. We get night time moths but you can’t really hear or see them unless you plan on having a sleepover outside at night. And there only seems to be a few. I got a hedgehog shelter and managed to attract a young hedgehog last Autumn. Im not in a town or city centre its more of a suburban rather than a urban location.  Im not used to seeing or hearing foxes and until last Autumn I never heard or seen them before. It was usualy other people not far away locally that saw or heard them instead. I have the same situation with bats. Other people always see them but I never see them. Last Autumn was the first time I ever saw a local bat. I saw one in the garden. And another day I was observing the moon at night and saw a bat  with my telescope fly past the moon which was amazing. I’m not curious how to attract them into the garden during the day only at night so that it causes less potential problems. to be honest Im just curious if theres a way to attract them without needing to use scraps. Like is there a wildlife friendly den you can get or make so they can go into to rest when they finished hunting and then leave the garden until night time comes again? 

  • Hi Zo I now understand what you are you are wanting to do, if you have a local naturalists group they may organise nocturnal visits to areas where you may see both Foxes and Badgers, I know one of our local groups do this with some success. You could maybe ask around locally where you see in your area, if you are hearing them they are around somewhere. in the area. Due to persecution by some quarters a lot of people are not willing to pass information on. As you are in a suburban are a friendly farmer may have Foxes on their land and maybe a feeding spot could be set up. I do envy you your view of a bat flying across the moon while you were looking through your scope, a new experience to me.. Good luck with your Foxes
  • Thanks. I dont know if they have one around here but I could try to find out. I think hes very close by. That local fox is the very first time I seen or even heard a fox.  I saw the fox for The first time around October, or November but the first time I saw the fox it was incidental cause I just went up to my window and opened it then noticed him. He walked right past but cause he heard the window he stopped and looked at me and then carried on. It would seem that he’s used to me being at the window now cause I have a habit of walking up to the window or opening it to cool the room down not knowing he’s there before he goes past the window. the first time I heard him call was probably October . For seeing him for the first time it was probably November. I described it as dramatic it was like a screaming baby thats being confronted , abandoned, cornered, or in trouble In the middle of the street. only thing is there isn’t usualy babys around in the street at this time of night. And I found out that that’s what there calls can sound like. Sometime This month I saw the fox go past and actually saw the fox barking. and Last week On a differant day Friday 21st January at 1:31 I heard two foxes talking to each other for the very first time. I have been trying to get a recording of a fox calling for a couple of months but didn’t know if it was going to call or when or how far away he is which made it hard to record. On Friday as soon as I heard a bark I ran strait to the window and pressed record. As soon as I finished the recording it walked past but I wasn’t exspecting it so I wasn’t ready to take a photo. Last week they were very vocal for a couple of days. But the day I did the recording was when they were most vocal. And it was the first time I recorded the 2 foxes calling to each other so I was really exited about it. Ever since that recording they been quiet vocal but not to the exstent they were that day. I think foxes are very interesting. Is it there mateing season? Cause I heard that they call to each other to look for a mate usualy in Autumn and Winter?

  • First, yes it is mating season for foxes and they do become very vocal, probably almost the only time of year they are very vocal, which makes a mockery of many dramas and films where they have foxes calling any night of the year....

    The full moon we've just had is known as the Wolf Moon. Though we don't as yet have wolves roaming free, there are connections with foxes, so you may find the following information of interest, taken from the Time & Date webpages. Each of the full moons we have are given a name according to the time of year and what usually occurs nature wise around that time.

    Before I unleash the Wolf Moon text on you, something else worth reading if you're into books, Gardening and Planting by the Moon 2022 by Nick Kollerstrom (author), it is a very interesting series of books published annually, and when you consider early mankind used the moon, among other things to grow sow, grow and harvest crops by.

    January: Wolf Moon

    By Anne Buckle and Vigdis Hocken for https://www.timeanddate.com/

    The year's first Full Moon, Wolf Moon, is named after howling wolves, but it's also often called the Moon After Yule in the Anglo-Saxon tradition.
    A big yellow Full Moon setting behind snowy Alaska Range mountains near Denali with pine trees in the foreground.

    NOTE: Time and dates are for the West Midlands UK.

    • Wolf Moon 2022
    • 17 Jan 2022, 23:48
    • Wolf Moon 2023
    • 6 Jan 2023, 23:07

    Howling Wolves in January

    January's Full Moon is known as the Wolf Moon, after the wolves that are active during the early parts of the year.

    The name is thought to have a Celtic and Old English origin, brought over to North America by European settlers. Other Celtic names of the Full Moon include Stay Home Moon and Quiet Moon, while in some Native American cultures, it is called Severe Moon or Center Moon.

    In Anglo-Saxon culture, January's Full Moon was also called the Moon after Yule. Yule is the ancient winter solstice festival usually celebrated around December 21.
    Naming the Full Moon

    In ancient times, it was common to track the changing seasons by following the lunar month rather than the solar year, which the 12 months in our modern calendar are based on.

    For millennia, people across Europe, as well as Native American tribes, named the months after features they associated with the Northern Hemisphere seasons, and many of these names are very similar or identical.

    Today, we use many of these ancient month names as Full Moon names. A common explanation is that Colonial Americans adopted many of the Native American names and incorporated them into the modern calendar. However, it seems that it is a combination of Native American, Anglo-Saxon, and Germanic month names which gave birth to the names commonly used for the Full Moon today.

    Some years have 13 Full Moons, which makes one of them a Blue Moon, as it doesn't quite fit in with the traditional Full Moon naming system. However, this is not the only definition of a Blue Moon.

    How many Full Moons this year?
    Why Do Wolves Howl?

    Regardless of where the name Wolf Moon comes from; wolves howl to communicate over long distances both in North America and in Europe. It is a way of saying “here I am” to the rest of the pack or “stay away” to intruders.

    During the denning season in spring and early summer, wolves only howl to pack mates. As the late summer moves towards fall, wolves call more and more to neighbors and enemies. While an average howl from a single wolf lasts from 3 to 7 seconds, a chorus by a pack can last from 30 to 120 seconds and longer during the breeding season in February. So wolves are particularly loud and vocal in the first months of the year, which is probably why people associated the month of January with howling wolves.
    Do Wolves Howl at the Moon?

    The scientific community has no indication that the Moon phase plays any particular part in the calls of the wolf, but wolves are nocturnal animals, so they are in general more active at night. And wolves do howl in the direction of the Moon; they point their faces toward the sky for better acoustics, because projecting their howl upward carries the sound farther.

  • It sounds to me like they're already in your garden - they're unlikely to simply walk past all the time, doubtless they're already foraging for food there. It's worth looking at getting a trailcam to find out, it's how we discovered foxes (and even a badger!) in our urban garden. As far as food is concerned, peanuts are probably best. Dog or cat food can be used, but you'll simply attract more of the neighbourhood moggies to eat it. We've found cats ignore peanuts and should there be any left, birds and the odd squirrel finish them up in the morning

  • Thats very interesting. Exspeacialy that there are connections to foxes aswell.
  • The garden is out the back of the house rather than out the front of the house but  there is a entrance to the driveway. but they walk past my house and strait past our driveway. I dont know where they goes when he goes past but sometimes he comes past the house and past the driveway and then an hour or a few hours later he returns and retraces his steps  back to where he was before. There are times I haven’t been able to see him coming back cause I missed it though. Before the day that two foxes howled, the fox started takeing a slightly differant route to his normal route but then come back useing the normal route. So I dont know if that’s cause he could smell another female fox since this occurred not long before the day the male was barking and then the female howled. A trail cam does sound like a good idea though. I do have a trail cam but it didn’t cost much at all but the only thing is I havnt used it for a long time and Im not sure if it’s still working. If it’s still working I might use it but otherwise I will get a new trail cam and give it another try. Thanks for the advice about food. And I think its really cool that you manage to catch a fox and even a badger on the trail cam. I think the video is good and it looks like he really enjoyed the food. And the information in the video about the 3 foxes you saw is very interesting. 

  • Zo Clark said:
    Thats very interesting. Exspeacialy that there are connections to foxes aswell.

    I'm not sure if I mentioned, we have foxes that regularly visit our garden, without any encouragement whatsoever.

    Earlier this year, we had siblings which have replaced  an aged fox, notable by the coat looking paler than the younger ones. Its been fascinating to watch them on the trailcam as they explored the garden and played. However, as they've grown up, only one is evident but we do have a new male, notable slightly different markings showing he's new and the way he wandered around the garden in a nosey manner rather than an established visitor, so perhaps, they're now a pair and the brother of the once young vixen has found himself a mate.

  • Earlier this year, we had siblings which have replaced  an aged fox, notable by the coat looking paler than the younger ones. However, as they've grown up, only one is evident but we do have a new male, notable slightly different markings showing he's new and the way he wandered around the garden in a nosey manner rather than an established visitor, so perhaps, they're now a pair and the brother of the once young vixen has found himself a mate.


    Maybe.  I dont know for sure though