Urban fox survey seeks deeper understanding

Researchers at UPEI are looking for the public’s help in their efforts to better understand the behaviour of urban foxes in Charlottetown.

The fox population in Charlottetown is here to stay, researchers say, with generations of young foxes having been born and raised in the city.

“There's a lot more open space here than a lot of cities,” said student researcher Ryan Cheverie.

“It makes it fairly easy for them to acquire resources. They’re kind of an opportunistic animal.”

Cheverie said the environment in Charlottetown allows the foxes to get what they need without too much competition with other, larger animals.

The research group at UPEI is looking for the public’s health in trying to better understand the foxes’ behaviour in the city. Cheverie is running an online survey to get information from the public about what they are seeing.

The survey asks simple questions about what the foxes are doing when they visit your property and how long they stay. The team is also using cameras to capture what they are doing, and Cheverie is looking for people to sign up for a camera for their yard.

The point of the project is for scientists to gain understanding, but also to educate the public on an often-misunderstood animal.

“They're a fairly passive animal as far as wild canids go. They prefer to hide as opposed to get in a fight,” said Cheverie.

“It's always good to know about what animals are in your city and how to deal with them and interact with them.”

The survey will be online until the end of the university semester in April.