The Nature of Scotland

Foxy ladies wanted
The stillness of some winter nights
can be crystalline. Go outside in a
calm place, when frost has crisped the
grass and stars by the galaxy-load glint
overhead. Then listen to the silence.
The screaming bark of a red fox
can cut through the calm of such a
night. Sharp, sudden, then gone, it also
seems to amplify the wider quiet.
That’s from a human perspective.
From the fox’s point of view, barking
in winter is a way of communicating
with potential mates and rivals. Two of
these will probably be the female and
dominant male whose ranges overlap
in the area where one or both of them
is calling.
The dog fox will be particularly
focused on this vixen in the mating
season during January and February.
A vixen’s calls and her response to
his bark can help him home in on
the female when she’s most likely to
conceive. But he may not succeed.
No wonder – to a human ear – that
there can be such a plaintive quality to
those short, unexpected fox calls in the
dark.
Web tip: sounds.bl.uk/Environment/
British-wildlife-recordings/022M-
W1CDR0001494-1600V0
8 The Nature of Scotland