Animal Diaries Archive

Courageous little fox

25 November 2005

Most Zoo visitors are aware that our two foxy girls are very shy and timid. The only time anyone really gets to see either of the girls being active in their enclosure is during our daily demonstration. It has always been Kit that people see, as she is the bravest and will come down to be hand-fed. Roxy, on the other hand, is extremely shy. Not many people have seen her, but lately her confidence has been growing and she has also been venturing down for some lunch just like Kit does. Therefore many more people have been lucky enough to see just how beautiful she is.

She has been very confident in the den, where we spend time bonding with them early in the morning and late in the afternoon. She just needed to gain her confidence within the open area of her home. We started by sitting above the top of the waterfall near the roof throwing food to her, then moved to hand-feeding her up there, moving her slowly down - just a little at a time - until she was comfortable enough to come down to the top edge of the waterfall.

It has taken a lot of time and patience on behalf of herself and her keepers to get to this stage, but has been well worth the effort as we are all very proud of her and the courage she has shown.