Food caching by red foxes and some other carnivores

Abstract

Food caching by the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, may safeguard surplus food for future consumption. Because of practical difficulties involved in observation the extent to which the fox making a cache, or any other fox, can utilise the hoard was not known. This problem is tackled through extended observation, using unfra-red binoculars, on wild foxes (some of which were radio-tagged), together with experiments involving hand-reared tame foxes, either walked on a long leash or free and radio-tagged. The results demonstrate the fox's ability to rediscover its caches and shed light on the adaptive significance of the behaviour, which is then dsicussed in the context of food safeguarding by other carnivores.