The Pongtastic Mr Fox

Emma Chaplin
, 06 January 2021
The Pongtastic Mr Fox
Rosie the fox © Tom Lee

By Charlotte Owen

WildCall Officer 

Winter is a busy season for foxes. If there are any living near you – and there probably are – you’ll be well aware of just how active they are at this time of year, yapping and screaming at all hours of the night and leaving plenty of unmistakable foxy scent. 

Scent is probably too delicate a word for the pungent, musky tang of fox. Foxes are undeniably smelly but they positively pong when their natural odour intensifies for the winter breeding season. An accidental lungful of fresh fox scent is enough to make your eyes water, even to our inferior human noses, but foxes have a much keener sense of smell and scent is their prime method of communication. Their musk is a complex mixture of more than 80 different compounds and is packed full of pheromones, wafting around their bodies like a cloud of intoxicating perfume. Each individual has a unique aroma that allows them to broadcast their identity and breeding status to potential mates, as well as their strength and bravado to potential rivals.

To make sure they smell the way they should, foxes have scent glands all over their bodies. Like cats and dogs, they have a pair of anal glands at the rear end and they also emit eau de fox from glands on their cheeks and jaws, across their skin and even between their toes. There’s a special scent gland at the base of their tail that apparently smells like violets, and it’s so active during the breeding season that its waxy secretions often stain the fur dark. 

Scent is especially important when it comes to marking territory, and fox urine is potent enough to leave a long-lasting message. One intrepid researcher determined just how long by bottling some fox-scented sawdust in a jar, which still stank when it was opened five years later. Laying down such a strong chemical signal sends an unmistakeable territorial message to keep out, and a mated pair will even mark each other to mingle their scents and strengthen the pair bond.  Trespassers are not tolerated and the resident pair will voice their outrage while chasing them off into the night.

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Comments

  • Christine Morrison:

    Lovely photos of Me Fox, I’ve had them in my garden for many years, and love to see them playing as cubs and gradually mature and leave to find a mate.

    21 Jan 2021 12:57:00

  • Christine Dafter:

    After you spoke last week on Nature Table Live, about the sounds foxes make. I was reminded of an incident near me a couple of years ago.

    The police arrived at my door, to ask if everything was ok. Of course, I was somewhat taken aback, but once they had described what had been reported to them, I was pretty certain it was the scream of the fox vixens, which we do hear in our garden. The policeman said he would remember that and would make a note in case other people rang with a similar description. I actually like the sound they make, then I know they are happy in this local environment.

    21 Jan 2021 16:47:00

  • jane holbrook:

    I love to see foxes in the fields and woodland. I don’t begrudge them an existence, and provided they leave my chickens alone,
    they are welcome along with all the other wildlife.

    22 Jan 2021 12:15:00

  • Jill Cousin:

    I had a wonderful sighting of a fox on the marshland near Southease yesterday . As I was on the train I was screened from any smells & partially removed but the train provides great viewing ‘ platform ‘ & this fox looked so healthy .

    23 Jan 2021 14:11:00

  • Veronica Cowen:

    I have been feeding foxes and there families for over 20 years now. One fox I use to call Fred became every night for three years. Then another use to sit on my doorstep waiting for his evening meal of dog food and biscuits. Plus other goodies. Have 2 visiting for there food every night at the moment.

    23 Jan 2021 15:16:00

  • Angela Arratoon:

    I’ve been happily feeding a male fox every evening on tinned dog meat in my garden in West London. As he got used to ‘his’ territory, the foxy smell around him reduced and was tolerable. But this year a young female maybe 1 year old has decided to share his territory – and supper. They seem to have worked out a compromise where she, the junior member, shows up one hour later than him for food. But how the fox smell has increased !! I used to let them into my kitchen but no more – just one paw on the threshold, full of their foot scent glands, is enough to make me avoid that area for the rest of the evening and into next day, even after leaving windows open all night. They must be either marking territory or leaving messages. But one must ‘think fox’ – the only time they try to leave faeces is on a whole upper level of stress: when on light summer evenings the crows appear to take their dinner !

    04 Jun 2025 06:44:00

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