The Secret Life of Foxes

by Chloe Petrylak

Have you ever spotted a fox and wondered where it was going? Or perhaps you want to know what all the commotion was about when they woke you up the other night with their ear-piercing screams? Or maybe you just want to know how you can tell if these elusive mammals have visited your back garden when you weren’t looking?

The Secret Life of Foxes contains everything you need to know (and everything you didn’t know that you needed to know!) about these beautiful opportunists. From identifying the various species of fox found around the world to learning about their anatomy and super sharp senses, as well as finding out more about our relationship with them – both past and present – get ready to become a fox expert with every page you turn.

The Secret Life of Foxes is for anyone who wants to learn and understand more about the animals we share this fragile planet with – especially the creatures we are able to spot a little closer to home. With useful tips on how to help the foxes near you and lots of other ways in which you can show your support, there’s so much to learn that you won’t want to put this book down for a single second.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

152 pages, Hardcover

Published February 28, 2023

Reviews

[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review DNF. I made it most of the way through, but could never get involved in the book. I know lots about foxes now, but I don't know how it feels to be a fox, how a fox makes decisions, what a fox is. This book is a very detailed look at foxes not within them. Some of the best authors of books on animals, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas - The Tribe of Tiger: Cats and Their Culture and The Hidden Life of Dogs etc and Bernd Heinrich with his wonderful books eg The Geese of Beaver Bog and Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds (and many other authors and books) give you the idea of what it is to be the animal. It just didn't happen for me in this book and I got fed up with it since I couldn't connect.

It's not badly written and it's not a bad book, I was just looking for more. 2.75 rounded up.
__________

Reading Notes Fun fact: foxes are adore shoes and like to take them home to .. .do what with? Who knows? It is all right writing foxes like shoes and maybe to play with and maybe it's the smell of feet, but I would have liked a bit more investigation of this extremely weird 'fact'. Is it just British foxes? Do Arctic foxes make off with snow shoes? Mediterranean ones with sandals? Foxes that live near nursing homes take furry slippers? Are feet similar to some sort of pheremone, or do they like to chew the leather?

Apart from the long-winded introduction, this book could be written for high-school aged children, say 14-17 who like reading about Nature. It is full of fun facts like foxes steal shoes, nice pictures and details of foxes' lives. But it is shallow, it absolutely lacks any depth at all. I know somewhat more about foxes now I've read more than half the book than I did before, but I don't understand foxes any more than I did.

I grew up in fox-hunting country, our house backed on to farmland, cows and sheep. The hunt gathered at the pub in the next village, the 200 yr old Tredegar Arms never checked for underage drinking, useful when the last bus is 8.30 and I was a teenager and we would see them in the fields behind the house. The fox would sometimes come into the garden, I think maybe they swam through the little brook and hoped the hounds wouldn't be able to follow as they'd lose the scent.

But twice the hunt invaded our garden and twice they had to pay a lot of money to relandscape it. It was shocking to see the enthusiasm of the dogs and riders for this poor little creature. How much they wanted to chase it and then rip its flesh until it dies. The law requires that the fox is shot and not killed by the hounds, but I doubt that ever happens. How would you ever stop a pack of hounds from killing the prey they've been hunting?

When I was about 9 my best friend, daughter of a maths teacher, was blooded. Her first hunt, they cut off the brush and rubbed the bloody cut end in her face. It was her last hunt.

Foxes are not an endangered species by any means, especially since they have learned to live with people in urban areas, and it is a lovely site to see a red fox curled up comfortably as you drive past on the motorway or whizz past on the train. Fox hunting is evil, but it is 'traditional', bull fights, cock fights, dog fights, they aren't ever going to stop, people enjoy committing or provoking cruelty among animals. I can think of a lot of other things to do with animals that are a great deal more fun myself.

[Beth Hunsberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun facts about foxes, their lives, habits, and activities. The book also includes many beautiful pictures.

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

What can be more rewarding and spellbinding than observing nature in action? Many of us including author Chloe Petrylak grew up watching foxes, both in urban areas and the wild. Wily, clever and agile, foxes are found in great abundance on every continent. The distribution of the red fox is the largest in the mammalian world. I have bottle-fed rescue pups as a young child, watched them deftly dig beneath wire fences, sneakily catch chickens, leap high into the air to pounce on prey, heard their goosebump-inducing screams in the dead of night and even nurse pups on a city park path.

Though very familiar with these beautiful creatures I learned more about them from this book including detailed anatomy, the words for a group of foxes, true foxes (and not), caching and that red foxes amazingly have up to 28 different calls. Those foxes which intrigued me most are the Fennec fox, Corsac fox, Tibetan fox (with its interesting almost human-like face) and Blanford's fox which can scale cliffs. Sadly, due to their worst predator, humans, about 80% do not live beyond three years, often through traffic accidents, lack of conservation and hunting. Not only did I learn more but the photographs spectacularly capture foxes from all sorts of angles in different stages.

Intrigued by foxes? This book is for you.

My sincere thank you to Pen & Sword and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this delightful book.

[Kirsten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Füchse sind aus dem Bild unserer Städte kaum noch wegzudenken. Aber auch wenn wir uns mit ihnen mittlerweile immer mehr Lebensraum teilen, wird unser Bild von ihnen immer noch von Vorurteilen geprägt. In Märchen und Liedern galten Füchse als schlau, aber auch verschlagen. Füchse gelten als Krankheitsüberträger, hauptsächlich von Tollwut. Chloe Petrylak will mit ihrem Buch damit aufräumen und ihren LeserInnen in die geheime Welt der Füchse einführen.

Für mich persönlich trifft der Titel nicht ganz zu. Die Autorin hat mir kein Geheimnis über Füchse erzählt, das ich nicht schon kannte. Aber sie erzählt sehr detailliert über sie. Am Anfang des Buchs gibt sie einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Arten von Füchsen.

Als es um das eigentliche Leben geht, beschränkt sie sich auf den Rotfuchs, der in unseren Regionen beheimatet ist. Sie erzählt von dem Moment an, an dem sich Fähe und Rüde treffen, bis die jungen Füchse den Bau verlassen und ein eigenständiges Leben beginnen.

Sie spricht auch darüber, wie die Füchse sich immer mehr Lebensraum in unseren Städten erobern und was wir tun können, um miteinander zu leben, ohne dass wir in das Leben des jeweils anderen eingreifen.

Auch wenn ich die Begeisterung der Autorin für ihr pelziges Thema in den Zeilen spüren konnte, konnte sie mir diese Gefühle bei der Lektüre nicht vermitteln. Für mich persönlich war das Buch etwas zu nüchtern gehalten, wenn auch sehr informativ.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accessible little book, packed full of facts and photographs about the red fox. The opening chapter covering fox species from across the globe perhaps feels a little extraneous, given the focus of the rest of the book, but this is a minor quibble.

Recommended for anyone wishing to know more about this fascinating and unfairly persecuted creature.

Many thanks to NetGalley and White Owl publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[SundayAtDusk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up until seven or so years ago, I never thought about foxes much, but then a large red fox showed up in my backyard one night. He was the first fox seen in the neighborhood in at least 50 years. Since I knew they were in other parts of the city and wondered if they would arrive sooner or later, I was both happy and worried at the same time. Would foxes harm cats or the raccoons that were so prevalent on the land on the river?

The raccoons had been the largest land night creatures around for so long. Would they fight foxes for their territory? It turned out my worries were for nothing. The red foxes here peacefully co-exist with the neighborhood cats, raccoons and opossums. They are very shy and run off when they see a human, or when an outside light is turned on, and appear to not want any trouble or attention from other creatures out at night. I do feel sorry for the bunnies, though, because foxes obviously love to chase and eat rabbits.

What else did they eat? I did some brief researching on them since their arrival, but not that much. Thus, I was most happy to get this book by Chloe Petrylak and learn a lot more than I knew about these quiet night creatures. One thing I learned is they are not so quiet. They make quiet a few different sounds, but I’ve only heard barking every now and then, as well as one night of mournful howling. (I think it was a fox and know it wasn’t a dog.) Plus, they eat a wide variety of food types from meat to berries. They eat rodents, too, which I already knew, and that is definitely a good thing in neighborhoods with canal and river embankments.

Where they sleep has always interested me. Twice I’ve seen one curled up like a dog in my backyard sound asleep! There’s really no places around for dens, either, unless they have dug one in an embankment. I never hear of them living under porches or sheds around here. This book described dens in detail and how they are mostly used for raising kits. The only time I have possibly seen litter mates is when the front yard security camera picked up three young foxes running around together one night. I never saw them again, and that was the first time I ever saw more than two red foxes together.

Their life expectancy, as described in this book, was much shorter than I expected. According to Ms. Petrylak, most are killed by vehicles. She is in England, however, so this book is focused mostly on the lives of red foxes there, but there are plenty of generalizations that work for foxes in other countries, too. (There are also pictures and descriptions of the various foxes in the world, a very surprising collection!)

One thing the author covers that is quite British, however, is fox hunting, a cruel sport that has been outlawed. So, is there the possibility that the red fox will become extinct one day? Not if they continue to adapt the way they always have in the many places in which they live. They are smart, they reproduce to make up for deaths, they eat all sorts of things, they can co-exist with other wildlife and want no trouble from anyone or anything.

P.S. This book is 150 pages and the current Kindle pre-order price is $30! You can't sell or donate an e-copy and most can't be loaned. Who would pay $30 for a Kindle copy of a book?

(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher or author.)

[Kim Cabrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foxes! They are fascinating and beautiful animals. This book promises to reveal the secret life of foxes.
The most prominently-featured species in the book is the red fox, primarily in the U.K. I was disappointed that there was very little information on the gray fox, which is widespread in the U.S. There are small sections devoted to other species of foxes, but the primary focus is the red fox, Vulpes vulpes.

The photos are beautiful and illustrate the text well to show each species. There were a few photos that were not that useful, but more on that later.

One thing that I was concerned about when reading this book is that the author relied a lot on internet resources for the information presented. While there are some reliable web sites out there, a lot of misinformation can be found too. I would take a cautious approach to the reliability of any information presented in a book that was primarily researched using internet sources. The reason? See below.

I ran across a few things that were inaccurate in the text.

Pikas are called “small, mouse-like mammals.” However, pikas are not rodents. They are closely related to rabbits, which are lagomorphs.

In the section on the tracks of the red fox, it is stated that the dewclaw will never be seen in a track in mud or snow. This is not true. Dewclaws often show up in canine tracks (fox included) when running at high speeds, or when they are moving through deep or soft substrates, such as mud or snow.

The tracking information is not all that accurate in this book. The only photo of red fox tracks is of some obscure tracks in snow, lacking detail enough to be able to identify the tracks in the field. However, this is not intended to be a track guide, so that oversight can be set aside. The text does repeat the (incorrect) information that a cat’s claws retract and will never show up in their tracks. It also states that foxes travel in straight lines, which is true when they use certain gaits, but is not, by itself, a diagnostic feature of their tracks. Also, contrary to the statement in the text, red foxes will not walk backward in order to brush out their tracks! This is the kind of misinformation you get when you rely almost exclusively on internet resources as the source material for your book’s text.

Overall, this is a nicely-written and illustrated introduction to the lives of red foxes, with some information about the other fox species of the world. The photos were decent, although the fox scat photo was too dark to even make out the subject. There are some interesting facts and anecdotes in the text. Some inaccuracies were included, but that is true of any book. It’s a fairly good look at the life of foxes and would make a nice gift to give to someone who loves these animals. It’s not a field guide, and it is not meant to be a field guide.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

A look into the life and world of the British red fox for those who are interested in learning more about these adorably cunning creatures as they prowl both the countryside and city.

The Secret Life of Foxes starts off with a Foreword by Jane Goodall on how she first had dealings with foxes when she was growing up and an introduction into urban foxes along with some of their peculiar habits before briefly touching on the opposing lines.

The book is separated into various chapters with a small start on the name and status of fox as a start then evolving into various chapters that explore the various foxes and non-fox foxes of the world, its anatomy along with a dive into its senses, a year in the life of foxes, our relationships with the red foxes, what they leave behind for those who may be into learning how to track them, their prey options and whether they have predators as well as both their importance as well as decline of these animals. Finally the book does close on how to get involved with the animals.

For those who are looking for a detailed and informative read as well as one that is a quick read this book will fit the bill. Each chapter and subsection are provided with a clear separation of subject while provided with colored photographs that have captions for illustration purposes.

My only main complaints about this book is the fact that the book explains what the print of a fox looks like but it doesn't provide the reader with a photographic look at it for those who are more visual learners although there is a trail in the snow so you can see at least what that looks like. Furthermore the author does also include that according to the Woodland Trust one should be able to feed foxes although it may not be wise while then providing the reader with tips for if they should wish to do so. I would have rather have seen the author err on the side of caution but I guess it does also provide a bit of safety for those who won't take no for an answer if they should read this book to begin with.

All in all it was a rather decent and informative book while even though it is outside my local zone I could still see using the book as a bit of a guide for foxes in my own neck of the woods.

[Lucy-Bookworm · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Secret Life of Foxes contains everything you need to know about the Red Fox, primarily in the UK, with a brief glance at foxes of the word, many of whom aren’t actually foxes!
Foxes are not an endangered species, and can often be seen as a pest (eg when stealing a chicken) but they are an excellent example of an animal that has adapted very well to live alongside people in cities, eating almost anything they can find & providing a useful pest-control system at the same time! Unfortunately so many sightings are at the side of a road where one has been hit by a car.
This book covers basic facts in a very accessible and easy-to-understand way. The paragraphs are very short, the sentences snappy and the chapters nicely rounded. It is not a book that delves deep, or goes into scientific aspects, but its an enjoyable read that will appeal to older children as well as adults who want an introduction into the life & habits of foxes!
The author has worked for magazines such as National Geographic Kids and The Week Junior, and I think this shows a little in her simple writing style.

The photography is gorgeous & was potentially going to save the book, but alas it was all “purchased from Shutterstock” so is nothing new or unique. I felt a bit let down by this & the over-reliance on secondary material from websites etc rather than scientific research, personal observation etc (though well done for including such a detailed bibliography!).
Ultimately this is a collation of otherwise available information into a nice accessible little book, packed full of facts & anecdotes, that will appeal to anyone interested in the fox, or to people new to nature who would like to learn more about this fascinating & often unfairly persecuted creature. Unfortunately the lack of depth & lack of new information is what loses stars for me, but having said that, I did enjoy reading it and can definitely see it on the shelves of school libraries, as a coffee table book for people who like foxes etc.

#TheSecretLifeofFoxes #NetGalley

[Pankaj Goyal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book serves as a concise entry point into the world of red foxes, offering fundamental insights into their habits, habitats, and general behaviours. It serves as a valuable starting point for beginners or those seeking a quick overview. The text is straightforward, presenting basic information in an easily digestible format, making it accessible to a wide audience, including younger readers or those new to the subject.

However, while the book succeeds in providing foundational knowledge, it falls short in depth and comprehensiveness. It could benefit from more detailed exploration, delving deeper into the complexities of red fox behaviour, ecological impact, and their role in various ecosystems.

[Violeta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the book since I have received it for review. I liked how the info was presented: easy to follow with a lot of examples and background about these marvellous creatures. The images are breathtaking and I found the entire book to be very informative.
I recommend it to those who want to know more about this animal and to those who are at the beginning in researching the habits and life of foxes.
However, I would have liked a little of myth and folklore about these animals to be included and maybe a statistics in general about the fox not only about those in UK. This is the only reason for which I am not giving a 5 stars rating.

----NetGalley review ----

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick book with easily digested facts about the similarities and differences between the foxes of the world. Lovely pictures of the different foxes are included.

This is not a book which focuses on obscure scientific fox specifics. Instead, it succinctly covers the basic facts in well-written paragraphs. I enjoyed reading it on its own, and can easily imagine any aged reader enjoying its contents.

Fox lovers won’t be disappointed!

Great thanks to NetGalley and Pen & Sword for granting access to a digital ARC in exchange for my opinions.

[Tove R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love foxes and I love this book! This is a great, informative, and easy to read book for everyone who loves foxes, are intrigued by them, or want to learn more about wildlife and nature. The book is set up in a nice way, and it gives the necessary info everyone should know about foxes, their lives, and all the different kinds of foxes we have on our planet. It is a surprisingly quick read, and it did not feel like a chore or a school biology book, instead it is a fun read, and in the end I could not put it down.

[Odette Lattimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you for the advanced copy.

I love foxes, I am lucky enough to live in a village and see them almost every morning coming down through the fields.

This is a beautiful book with gorgeous illustrations that I think will be perfect for my nephew's who also love foxes.

This covers all facts needed and is so well written and covers all the basics and much more.

Highly recommended

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

#TheSecretLifeofFoxes #NetGalley Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this novel. I encourage you to check this one out!

[Foggygirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent but fairly generic read.

[Mohamed Tahar Hamada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come!

[historic_chronicles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since I was a young child, I have been filled with adoration at the sight of a fox. From their beautiful silken coats, their big bushy tails, their smooth agility and their cunning wits, the fox has always been a creature I held in the most fondest regards.

This book is a fascinating and truly accessible introduction into the facts and background of foxes.

With an outstanding foreword written by Dr. Jane Goodall, Chloe Petrylak goes on to explore the "ins and outs" of the fox, in particular that of the red fox which is the most common of the mammalian world, explaining their lives, habitat and activities.

I particularly found the hardships of a fox to be of grim, yet necessary reading. As a fox lover, it was difficult to read of how nearly 80% of red foxes do not live past the age of 3 years old due to circumstances such as road accidents and hunting. The author also provides ways in which you can aid the fox at the end of the book which I found to be a beneficial addition.

So now, when I hear the foxes that visit my garden calling to each other in those chilling shrieks in the dead of night (which thanks to this book I now know is just one of 28 different calls!) I can safely say I know a wealth of information that I did not before!

Thank you to @white_owl_books for providing me with an advanced copy of this book through @netgalley 🦊

[Jill]

More of a resource than anything else, although specific to the UK. Easy, quick read with a lot of great pictures and useful information to help understand behaviors and characteristics of this beautiful, highly adaptive animal in our midst.