Urban red foxes (Vulpes vulpes L.) in Finland: A historical perspective

• Red foxes have probably been present near Finnish cities since the Middle Ages.
• Urban visits by red foxes have been documented since the late 19th century.
• Anthropogenic food sources probably attracted red foxes to towns and cities.
• Some urban fox observations concerned escaped pets.
• Persecution may have delayed establishment of breeding urban red fox populations.

Urbanization of the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is usually considered a recent phenomenon, originated in southern England in the 1930s, and having only thereafter spread, or independently originated, elsewhere. In this paper we show that in Finland red foxes have probably been hunted in the vicinity or outskirts of towns at least since the 18th century, and that foxes have been well-known (although unwelcome) visitors in urban areas at least since the late 19th century. One hunter captured 56 red foxes in a small hilly area in the outskirts of the city of Turku, SW Finland, in 1743–1747. In the leading newspaper of Turku urban or periurban visits by red foxes were reported 15 times in 1890–1950, and in 1890–1920 local newspapers in Finland reported urban observations of red foxes in three of the nine cities with more than 10,000 inhabitants at the onset of the First World War. In several instances foxes were reported to have preyed upon domestic fowl. Several fox reports concerned apparently tame individuals. Red foxes were probably attracted to urban areas by the low hygiene levels and human-dependent fauna associated with urban agriculture. We found no direct evidence for reproduction of foxes within urban areas in the study period. Although urban areas were apparently included in the feeding territories of many foxes, active persecution probably prevented establishment of local urban populations.