Public attitudes to urban foxes in London and the south east.

Abstract

Humans and foxes have a long history of coexistence and conflict. We assessed the “likeable” and “reproachable” characters of foxes as perceived by two populations of adults and children in England via a questionnaire. Londoners were more averse to neighbourhood foxes than respondents from the south-east, while attitudes of women were more favourable than those of men. Our data add to the pool of information about human perception of urban wildlife and may contribute to the development of conflict-resolution strategies by helping target education.