Urban foxes are braver than their rural cousins, but not smarter, study finds

Urban foxes may be bolder than their rural equivalents, but they’re not necessarily smarter.

Researchers spent just over a year studying wild foxes at 104 sites in England and Scotland, leaving the scavengers’ food in puzzling containers and filming whether they managed to open them.

They rated the locations by how rural or urban they were, based on characteristics such as roads, green space and the density of people living there.

The results showed that foxes in urban areas were significantly braver when it came to pushing, pulling, licking or biting containers with tasty treats such as deli, honey or dog biscuits in them.

Their rural cousins ​​were more reluctant to touch the containers.

But the urban foxes didn’t know how to get into the containers anymore, suggesting that their street savvy isn’t as developed as some people think — or that they don’t bother using them.

Dr. Blake Morton, a psychologist and animal behaviorist who led the study from the University of Hull, said: ‘Foxes in towns and cities may not be as smart as we think.

“Or they’re just lazy, because there’s so much food lying around in urban areas, they’ve decided they don’t need to bother finding clever ways to get food, which takes effort.”

Either way, this challenges the long-standing belief that urban foxes are notorious scavengers of other man-made food containers, such as litter and the contents of outdoor bins.

“There’s no denying that litter and outdoor bins can provide at least some urban foxes the opportunity for an easy meal, but for many other foxes our research shows that their behavior is much more nuanced.”

Voles were found to behave smarter in urban areas than in rural areas, so researchers wanted to understand whether urban foxes, known to raid bird feeders and compost piles, were also better at solving problems.

They left behind food that foxes could freely extract from the ground, which the animals ate anyway.

Foxes in urban areas were significantly braver when it came to pushing, pulling, licking or biting containers with tasty treats such as deli, honey or dog biscuits in them

But then they left out eight types of fox snack in trays, which required actions such as pulling open a lid with their mouth, pushing a stick with a paw, or pushing through a thin foil. The research, published in Animal Behavior, found that foxes in 96 of the 104 locations acknowledged the puzzles by turning their heads towards them, but foxes from only 31 locations touched them.

Meanwhile, foxes from only 12 locations were allowed access to the food, which remained on average for about two weeks

While urban foxes generally weren’t more prone to problem solving, foxes in London seemed to be the exception, although this is based on a small number of foxes so more research is needed.

Foxes in the capital may be better at solving problems because they live in a fast-paced environment, where they are constantly faced with new challenges.

Dr. Morton said: ‘Foxes are known to thrive in cities, and our study suggests that bolder behavior may help urban foxes adapt to such environments.

“But just because a fox lives in a city doesn’t mean it’s into problem solving.

“This may mean that they are not the crafty ‘vermin’ that some people imagine, and usually don’t bother us at all.”