Fox cubs:
Your rescue update

This spring, fox cubs in trouble needed our help. Your regular gifts helped our rescue teams be there – and supported months of expert care to prepare these youngsters for life back in the wild. Thank you.

Four fox cubs gathered around and inside a large black tunnel.

Watch the cubs explore and play

A portrait of Ryan Walker, Deputy Manager at an RSPCA Wildlife Centre.

There’s no feeling like seeing an animal return to the wild where they belong.

Wildlife Centre Deputy Manager, Ryan Walker

From little cubs to foxes

With your support, the cubs progressed from milk replacer to solid food as they grew.

Care you helped make possible

Your gifts helped provide daily care, with human contact minimised to help the cubs stay wild.

The rescue you helped make possible

One little fox cub was only five or six weeks old when an RSPCA animal rescue officer came to her aid. She’d become caught in garden netting alongside her sibling, who sadly hadn’t survived.

At just 0.9kg, she was very thin and had an injured hind foot. On arrival at RSPCA West Hatch Wildlife Centre, she was checked over and given the care and food she needed to grow stronger. Before long, she had recovered from her injuries.

Once she was well enough, we introduced the cub to others of a similar age. Some had been injured; another six had arrived together after losing their mother. With you alongside us, we could give all these cubs the ongoing care they needed throughout their rehabilitation.

Close-up of a young fox cub beside a shallow food dish.

Getting ready for life in the wild

Over the months that followed, the cubs grew bigger and more independent. To keep them from getting used to people and to preserve their natural instincts, we kept human contact to a minimum. We also hid and buried food, encouraging them to search, dig and forage.

Your support was there throughout those months of care. Eventually, we moved the cubs to carefully chosen release sites, where they spent some time in secure pens with familiar food, water and shelter.

When the time was right, we opened the pen door, leaving the foxes free to come and go as they adjusted to life outside. A volunteer continued to provide food, until gradually, the foxes stopped returning for it – a wonderful sign that they were making their own way in the wild.

Together, we helped these cubs all the way from rescue to release. Thank you for joining the rescue.