Foxes Wild Week Revisited

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I know absolutely nothing about foxes.

Debbie, what's the story with this fox?

Her name is Linny, she was found lying on the side of the motorway, she was about four weeks old.

-How old is she now?

-She's three years old now.

-Why is she still here?

-The problem is that she doesn't really know that she's a fox.

In her head, she probably thinks she's a dog or cat.

She doesn't have any instinct. She isn't able to survive in the wild

so she's remained at the centre.

-What is this centre?

-It's a wildlife rescue centre

where we take in sick and injured wildlife from round Northern Ireland.

It's all very well having one under your arm here

but can we see them in the wild?

We're going to head off and see if we're lucky enough to find some.

These are going to be urban foxes, they'll be around people's houses

and round the streets.

-What are we doing?

-We're attaching motion sensor cameras to the tree

and if we're lucky, we'll capture some images of foxes in the area.

-How do you know there are foxes round here?

-The local people feed the foxes at night

so if we're lucky, we should be able to see some.

-Foxy Loxy comes past, triggers the camera, takes a picture.

-Exactly.

-But now this is the time we have to wait.

-OK. Bring a flask?

OK, give us some there.

We've been here a couple of hours, let's see what you've got.

No problem.

Brilliant!

He ate the sausage!

Will they eat their fill or will they come back and forward?

They'll eat as much as they can.

They will probably take food away and stash it.

He's the more dominant one of the two.

He's come in for the food, the other one's backed off.

How do you feel about the fact that when a fox gets into a chicken coop, it kills everything it sees?

It is in their instinct to do that.

Their attitude is, "We don't know when our next meal's coming along,

"so kill everything and stash it."

They're really close. I mean, this is the town.

A lot of people think the foxes are moving into urban areas

when, in fact, we're building houses on the countryside,

so they're just coming in and adapting and living around us.

Over there, you can actually see them in the headlights.

They're still coming up and taking the food.

It's been absolutely amazing to see all this activity out there.

And it's the first night I've spent in a car and steamed up the windows with a lady, watching foxes.

We must do it again sometime.

Stuart, you've got some fascinating footage of pine martens

on the estate that hasn't been seen by anybody apart from yourself.

I'm looking forward to having a bit of a glimpse at them in action.

This is the bin area at our visitor centre, where pine martens like to come.

You can see the bins being opened by the pine marten.

He's smelt some food and he's trying to get at it.

He's pretty strong.

-Looks like a male, quite a big animal.

-Big tail is the first thing that strikes you.

-Big, bushy tail.

-It's like a fox's tail.

It's a fantastic little thing.

When it's walking about the bin you'll see the tail going back and forward for balance.

He's still got his winter coat on, which is big and bushy, compared to his summer coat.

-He's disappeared...

-He's nipped inside for some food there.

-Inside that bin, what will he eat?

-They have a particularly sweet tooth

so I imagine anything sweet - jam, or peanut butter, things like that.

That individual is a male and it looks like he's scent marking,

so he's marking those bins as his territory.

Would it be usual just for one of them to come and do this, or might you find two or three?

They're solitary animals most of the time.

Males and females would stay apart for most of the year and only come together to breed.

The female brings up the kits - the babies - on her own.

The male has no input whatsoever.

-Whereabouts is this?

-This is at a bridge between here and one of our islands.

It's probably a different animal with a different territory.

He's smelt some food and he's having a wee look around.

He has a brown streak, which isn't apparent in the other animals.

We're fairly sure this is a different animal.

It's great to see it up close, unaware of the fact the camera is following its every move.

This is a privilege, because nobody's seen these pictures before.

Thank you for setting up the traps and organising it for us.

The big challenge is to see if we can find a pine marten and get up close and personal.

We'll go to Violet Johnson's house and take our chances,

see how we get on. Fingers crossed.

Well, I waited until 10pm that evening.

Up until then, our pine marten was making a regular appearance at Violet's feeding spot

at around 9pm.

Unfortunately, it was a no-show from the pine marten.

You see, a fox took a liking to his food, and that's why our pine marten disappeared.

He did eventually turn up, though. First, at night...

and then he showed up in glorious Technicolor a week later.

I have to say, it's been well worth the wait.

Just look at him. He's a real beauty.

The last time I saw a badger, I was about seven.

I was reading Wind In The Willows, making animals come alive for me,

but I couldn't tell you what a badger's set looks like,

-but you're going to show me today?

-Yes, there's one over here and we'll look now.

Great.

Here's a typical set entrance. It's a D shape

because of the shape of a badger's body.

You can see it's active because of the bedding,

which they bring in and out, to line their chambers.

So their very clean animals.

-Is this the main entrance?

-That's only one entrance.

There could be 30.

In fact, within that there are a series of tunnels and chambers.

Badgers continually excavate and change.

How old is this particular set?

Many old sets are recorded.

Even back to the Doomsday Book, there's sets recorded

which are still active.

-Right. That's incredible.

-This set could be maybe 200-300 years old.

There's records of sets in this area from that time

and this certainly is an aged set.

This well-worn pathway leads to badger latrines -

their outside toilets.

This is where badgers come. They dig pits.

As we discussed, they're very clean animals.

What's more exciting, it's about time to see badgers at the main set.

-Does that mean we have to be quiet, Peter?

-Very, very quiet.

I'll try.

WHISPERS: Look over there. There's one emerging now.

That's a dominant bore.

WHISPERS: He's massive! About three foot long?

Yes, it would be. That's a fully-grown adult.

That one's probably about three or four years old.

Is that the boar or the sow? How can you tell?

Well, you can tell but it's difficult sometimes.

But the sow, it's narrower between her ears and she's a longer snout,

whereas the males have a wider face, but sometimes it's very difficult to tell.

OK, so what's he going to be doing now?

He'll out to forage now for the night.

He'll probably stay out until dawn. He'll go in just before dawn.

And he'll forage around the fields here, looking for earthworms and grubs.

You've shown me the country badgers,

so I want to show you something before it gets too dark.

Our cameras have been out spying on badgers in the city.

Isn't it strange that badgers are in the city as well?

I couldn't believe it.

It's maybe not really, when you think we're building out further and further into their territory.

So badgers have always been here. We've just moved out in among them.

To be this up close and personal to badgers has been amazing for me,

just taking me right back. I feel as if I was seven again, Peter.

Thank you very much.

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