Watch This Fearless Cat Fight Off an Invading Fox Trying to Steal Its Lunch

Key Points

• With foxes having adapted to urban areas, encounters between them and domestic felines are likely to be common.
• Both cats and foxes are impressively agile.
• Foxes also have the benefit of speed and size, however, cats can be pretty determined during a confrontation.

This cat has no intention of backing down! The ginger tabby holds its ground and fights off a determined fox who has its eyes on a tasty bit of food. Scroll down to watch the full video of this classic confrontation.

Where Do Foxes Live?

Foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are dog-like mammals that are found in many areas including Africa, Asia, Eurasia, Europe and North America. These days, they can often be spotted in urban areas in the Northern Hemisphere. In human folklore and literature they have a connection with being cunning.

Foxes live a solitary existence and are able to adapt to a number of different environments. They can live in forests, mountains and deserts. Artic foxes are found in colder climates whilst the red fox has adapted to live near and in human settlements. This is inevitably going to bring them into contact with domestic animals including cats!

What Do Foxes Usually Eat?

Not all foxes rely on pinching food from domestic cats. They are omnivores and can digest both plant and animal protein. Foxes eat fruit, seeds, eggs, vegetables and fungi by foraging around to see what they can find.

However, they will also hunt for prey and they target rodents (typically rabbits), birds and frogs. They will also eat racoons, mollusks and even crabs.

These guys hunt early in the morning or at night and can use the earth’s magnetic field to guide them.

Foxes are also not fussy. They will finish off the carcass of prey that has been killed by another animal and, as we see here, pinch food from domestic cats if they can!

How Do Foxes Hunt Prey?

Foxes use stealth to catch their prey. So, perhaps their reputation for being cunning is deserved. They would prefer to sneak up on the target and pounce rather than get into a chase but can run quite fast if they need to.

The technique is to pounce, pin the animal to the ground and deliver a fatal bite with their very sharp teeth. This delivers a deadly puncture wound or breaks the neck.

The cat here was wise to try to stay away from those sharp teeth!