People ask whether a fox is a danger to a wandering, outdoor domestic cat and the answer depends upon the age, the sex, the character of the fox and the cat, and of course the circumstances. However, by-and-large, in my UK experience, the cat and the fox respect each other because they both see the potential for been injured and therefore keep their distance. Also, in my personal experience foxes tend to ignore cats but I am sure that there are occasions when a fox might attack and kill an elderly, infirm or young cat. Conversely, there will be occasions when a large, feral cat might attack a fox causing injury.
Foxes vary in size depending upon their species and their location and therefore the balance between the feral or domestic cat and the fox can lose its equilibrium when one of the animals is dominant over the other. This can lead to an attack.
THERE ARE SOME MORE PAGES ON FOXES AND CATS AT THE BASE OF THE PAGE.
In the video on this page, the feral cat chases away a fox who wants to eat from his food bowl put down, by the way, by the person who filmed the event. As you can see it was filmed using a Ring doorbell which contains a video camera which is motion activated.
If the cat in question had actually met with the fox there may have been a fight but the fox would have probably backed off quite quickly. It’s a fairly even fight depending upon the factors mentioned above. When predators were equally balanced in terms of attributes, when they meet up they tend to back off in the interests of self-preservation. It does not make sense to fight because an injury can lead to starvation and death.
Note: videos on this site are typically made by people other than me and held on YouTube servers or the servers of other businesses (not the server storing this website). Sometimes the videos are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened I apologise but I have no control over it.
The story behind the video
I am thankful to the Patch website for this. The video was made in Fairfax, Virginia, USA. The homeowner installed the Ring doorbell/video camera specifically to keep an eye on the feral cat that they feed and who they named Popeye; a nice way to use this excellent product which is normally employed as a security camera at the front of the home. The video capture took place at 1:21 AM on a Monday. The confrontation between Popeye and Mr Fox resulted, as you can see, in the complete dominance by Popeye. I’m not sure that it would always be like this but it does tell us that the feral cat can be a fierce adversary.
SOME PAGES ON FOXES AND CATS:
