Living alongside foxes (& badgers)
Sitting here in a hotel room near Gatwick with the roar of jet engines passing overhead every few minutes is not exactly out there 'in the field' but I've just spent two days with a man who has discovered a great deal about foxes no more than 50m from his back door in a leafy Kent village. Mike Towler is a man on a mission. He is fascinated by fox behaviour and spends an enormous amount of his time in their company. He also cares for injured foxes and rehabilitates orphaned cubs, releasing them back into the wild from his 9 acre garden. Many return to be fed each night, some staying in the local area for several years. Others are never seen again, moving well away to establish their own territories.
By nightfall, Mike has spread several handfuls of peanuts around the back yard and served up rations of pet mince for his regular nocturnal diners, 'Sandy Farleigh', a male fox released last year and two badgers. The first to appear just before 10pm is an unnamed badger that is confident enough to feed within a few metres of me, partially concealed behind the kitchen door. He tolerates a few clicks and flashes before trundling off into the night. At midnight (and 2 hours later than normal) a second badger appears from the half light into the floodlit feeding arena. "This must be Benji", says Mike and goes outside to meet her. "Hello Benji, it's me." The badger is well accustomed to Mike's nightly routine and proceeds to follow him into the boiler room where he collects Benji bowl of food. Mike sits down and calls Benji over, "Come on Benji, come and get your food." This surely can't be happening. I watch with mouth agape from just a few metres away as Benji nimbly stands up on her back legs and puts her front paws on Mike's knees and hungrily pushes her snout into the bowl of food. She is clearly enjoying her meal as Mike calmly strokes her head and talks to her in soft tones.
I take a few shots barely able to believe what I'm seeing for this is a truly wild badger that Mike has got to know over the past two years. It is completely relaxed in his presence yet it is not tame and certainly won't tolerate anyone else. Mike's rehabilitated foxes are equally nervous of anything strange and whilst Sandy follows Mike around the garden and will take food from his hand, he won't come down to dine in the back yard with me lurking inside the kitchen. Mike has been critisised in the past for 'taming' his foxes in this way in the belief that this would place them in danger and encourage them to approach humans. But from my experience this is clearly not the case and as Mike explains, "foxes choose the friends with care." Clearly, it'll take much longer than a brief two night stay to become accepted as a trusted friend of these suburban foxes.
Mike has also cared for two injured foxes over the past six years. The first, Cropper was the subject of several of the images in the Tooth & Claw project (www.toothandclaw.org.uk) whom I photographed taking Mike for a walk around the suburban lanes of rural Kent. Cropper was suffering from a neurological disorder that meant that he couldn't be released back into the wild and was going to be put down until Mike came to the rescue. Cropper died in 2007 but Mike now has another fox called Jack who suffers from a similar condition. Jack spends his day in an outside pen but every evening joins Mike in the house where he is accepted as one fo the family. Photographing what was once a wild fox curled up in front of the TV is as bizarre as the episode watching the badgers in Mike's backyard and even more so when Mike suggests we go outside with Jack for a run around with a football!
Each year Mike also takes in a number of orphaned cubs, which remain outside in a pen until they are ready for release back into the wild in July. This year five spirited cubs can be heard each evening as they play inside their enclosure. Any approach from a human though has them scurrying for cover. One cub seems much bolder and more enquisitive than the others and by waiting quietly by the side of the pen he/she comes quite close to investigate me. Soon these five cubs will be able to fend for themselves and Mike provides a soft release within his own garden from where many of them will disperse. But each year one or two stay around, sometimes for several years allowing Mike to observe some fascinating aspects of fox behaviour. One vixen even had cubs of her own within the garden and 'encouraged' Mike to join her as she took food to her cubs. The ultimate accolade and recognition of a trusted friendship that few other people have been fortunate enough to enjoy.
