Outfoxed: Sounds like a family eviction

Dick Warner on the curious social lives of foxes.

It was a still, quiet night and I was sitting outside. Suddenly the quietness was shattered. The sounds came in bursts of three, a bit like a dog’s bark but higher in pitch. Dogs did start to bark in a number of houses round about and the difference was obvious. Then a hare squealed in alarm.

My wife heard the uproar from inside the house and came out to find out what was happening. It’s the foxes, I explained, something is going on at their earth in the next field.