Diet

Most of the diet consists of meat. The fox preys mainly on mice and voles. Catches also ground-nesting birds, chicks, and eats eggs from nests. Also feeds on reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects. Attacks poultry quite frequently. Eats carrion, food waste near settlements. During the growing season, regularly feeds on fruit.

Habitat

In Latvia, foxes live in a wide variety of habitats, are very well adapted to cultural landscapes and populated areas, and sometimes do not shy away from settling even in large cities. It is often found in woodlands, swamps, along the banks of water bodies, in groves and bushes in the middle of fields. Foxes avoid large, uniform stands of pine forests and heavily flooded woodlands.

Important and interesting facts

The fox is a very attentive animal, orienting itself mainly by smell and hearing (vision is much less developed). When hunting, the fox is adept at using all natural means to conceal itself. The fox moves through depressions, ditches, under cover of bushes and woods, often stopping to assess the situation. It swims reasonably well and can climb up an inclined tree. At birth, the little foxes are more like wolves than foxes. Latvians have many folk tales about the red fox, which is always cheating wolves and other animals, as well as humans. However, there is one animal that sometimes beats the fox in cunning – the hare. The fox is almost always a negative character in Latvian fairy tales, and there is a lesson in fairy tales about this animal about how careful one must be not to fall for the "fox's trickery" in life.

Information sources: latvijasdaba.lv, Wikipedia

Photos: Māris Kreicbergs