Autumnwatch fox update

Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) - Essex, UK
Canon 1Ds3, 600/f4, Gitzo 3530LSV, Wimberley WH2.
Manual exposure mode f5.6; 1/800, iso 400.
RAW image processed in Adobe Camera Raw; sharpened in Photoshop CS5; noise reduction using Noiseware Professional Imagenomic; full frame.

Originally scheduled to go out tonight, the Autumnwatch fox feature has been moved to next week, 11th November, with a further feature, including some infrared footage that we shot earlier this week, going out on 18th November.

This is a shot of the Springwatch/Autumnwatch vixen (camera left) getting into trouble with the male fox (camera right) from an adjoining territory photographed a couple of weeks ago. This vixen, together with her male partner (son of the male fox shown here) have been aggressively expanding their territory over the late summer and into the autumn and this illustrates one encounter with one of the foxes resident in those areas. Two of the male cubs filmed for Springwatch have now dispersed/disappeared. One of them vanished back in August, the other, a couple of weeks ago. With the disappearance of these two cubs the female cub has suddenly become much more confident, while the remaining male cub has become much more skittish.