The hidden world of the fox / Adele Brand.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Discover the hidden world of the fox, as beautifully revealed by an acclaimed ecologist who has studied foxes for two decades across four continents

"An ode to this familiar yet mysterious creature. ... The sight of foxes can lift Brand's prose into poetry. ... By turns lyrical, salty, funny and scholarly." --New York Times Book Review

The fox. For thousands of years myth and folklore have celebrated its cunning intelligence. Today the red fox is the nature's most populous carnivore, its dancing orange tail a common sight in backyards. Yet who is this wild neighbor, truly? How do we negotiate this uneasy new chapter of an ancient relationship? Join British ecologist Adele Brand on a journey to discover the surprising secrets of the fabled fox, the familiar yet enigmatic creature that has adapted to the human world with astonishing--some say, unsettling--success.

Brand has studied foxes for twenty years across four continents--from the Yucatán rainforest to India's remote Thar Desert, from subarctic Canada to metropolitan London. Her observations have convinced her that the fox is arguably the most modern of all wildlife, uniquely suited to survival in the rapidly expanding urban/wild interface. Blending cutting-edge science, cultural anthropology, and intimate personal storytelling drawn from her own remarkable fieldwork, The Hidden World of the Fox is Brand's rich and revelatory portrait of the extraordinary animal she has devoted her life to understanding.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Prologue: Who Is the Fox? (p. 1)
• 1 A Brief History of the Fox (p. 11)
• 2 Where do Foxes Live? (p. 29)
• 3 What Does the Fox Look Like? (p. 43)
• 4 Fox Family Matters (p. 55)
• 5 The Fox and Its Neighbours (p. 71)
• 6 What Does the Fox Say? (p. 91)
• 7 Counting Foxes (p. 107)
• 8 In Sickness and in Health (p. 119)
• 9 Predators Among Us (p. 135)
• 10 When the Fur Flies (p. 149)
• 11 Tornado in a Cage (p. 161)
• Epilogue: Fame and Foxes (p. 175)
• The Fox Watcher's Toolkit (p. 181)
• Acknowledgements (p. 195)
• Bibliography (p. 197)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Eminent British mammal ecologist Brand pens a tribute to the red fox. Omnivorous red foxes range widely across the northern hemisphere from wilderness habitats to rural areas to the suburbs to the streets of London. Brand weaves her personal experience studying foxes and raising their orphaned young into a lay discussion of their folklore and habits. This well-researched work with an extensive bibliography covers the evolutionary history of red foxes as well as their biology, including physical characteristics, breeding behavior, and vocalizations. Brand shares their hunting techniques and relationships with other animals as both predator and prey, as well as the problems with trying to estimate population sizes and feeding and/or keeping foxes as pets. She debunks their danger to humans except in extremely rare cases and addresses the two main diseases, mange and rabies, foxes may contract. The work is rounded out with ideas for studying foxes using photography, tracking, and keeping a wildlife diary and even provides research topics for students to pursue. VERDICT This beautifully written work paying homage to red foxes will appeal to those interested in urban wildlife and the ever-increasing conflicts between humans and other animals.--Sue O'Brien, Downers Grove, IL

Publishers Weekly Review

Mammal ecologist Brand offers a spirited look at the red fox in this smart and accessible volume. In the introduction, Brand traces a lifelong pursuit which has included writing about foxes in childhood diaries, studying them in college, and, more recently, fostering orphaned cubs and injured adults for the Fox Project charity. Early chapters focus on their distinctive appearance and hugely varied habitats. Noting that foxes can survive across the "full measure of the world's diverse environments," Brand recalls seeing them both in India's Thar Desert, among "a scrubby thicket of what the local people call toothbrush bushes," and in London, "on a patch of grass under one of Brixton's tower blocks, half illuminated by streetlight." Subsequent sections deal with foxes' "paradoxical" interactions with each other--which reveal them as simultaneously "independent and interdependent"--and with other animals, including rabbits, rodents, and deer. Even a digression on 2014's viral music video "What Does the Fox Say?" proves fruitful, with Brand discussing the full range of things which foxes do "say." Thanks to this mix of biology, personal history, and pop culture, Brand's readers will be left both entertained and better informed about "this small, curious member of the dog family." (Oct.)

Booklist Review

This charming book leads us into the lives of urban and suburban red foxes. Thousands of foxes inhabit cities and towns in Britain and the U.S., and mammal ecologist Brand explores how the red fox has adapted with such success to the modern, human-made world. Beginning with a look at the evolution and general biology of the fox, the author then considers what it is about the red fox that makes the species so ubiquitous, namely its adaptability. Foxes, though carnivores like the rest of their canine kin, are very catholic in their food preferences, eating just about anything they can find and/or catch. Their social structure is equally fluid, with observations of up to six helpers assisting a fox pair with their kits. The ""sit and watch"" curiosity that all foxes display leads to the ability to live among humans, as curiosity and intelligence have served this small predator for millennia. Mixing research with her own observations of garden foxes, Brand paints a wonderful picture of a wild neighbor that almost anyone in the countries in question can get to know.--Nancy Bent Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A British ecologist explores human encroachment on the world of the fox.Though there's a close connection between dogs and foxes, there is also a world of difference. Dogs and humans have evolved together for 36,000 years, and the household pets are "practically symbiotic with human beings." Foxes remain wild animals, but what was once wilderness has often become a golf course, bringing the animal into contact with humans, which often fear the fox and occasionally try to domesticate it, benefitting neither species. Brand clearly loves foxes and has devoted much of her life to studying them: "They make the world a more mysterious and interesting place." The author casts them in a realistic perspective, as natural creatures, showing that much of what we fear about themand some of what we find attractiveis the result of misunderstandings. "The fox is not an intruder into our world," she writes. "We have simply laid our modern ambitions over the landscape it already knew." So the fox may attack the bird we have caged, though wild foxes pose little threat to birds in the wild, and they occasionally bite the hand that feeds them when humans mistakenly assume that feeding them might somehow build a relationship. Brand's philosophy comes down to live and let live; we should keep our impact and influence on the fox as light as possible, and the fox in turn will likely have negligible impact on us. "I wish to know them as individuals," she writes, "to learn the stories of their lives as an honest biographerand to be a mediator, hoping to keep the peace between human and fox." Among the revelations here are that foxes typically weigh less than an average house cat, that they navigate by way of the Earth's magnetic field, and that vixen are only fertile three days per year.A pleasant nature book that provides everything you ever wanted to know about the fox. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.