Finding the Fox. Encounters with an Enigmatic Animal

Selected title by NORLA – extensive translation grants available.

If you look into the amber eyes of the fox, you’ll discover that the pupils are vertical slits, like those of a cat. There’s a clue about the nature of the fox right there: a cat’s eyes in a slender canine body.

In Wild, Andreas Tjernshaugen shares his experiences from two years of watching foxes in a rural area near his home outside Oslo, Norway, where they are hunted and typically shun people. He also sees foxes closer to the city, where the interaction between them and people can be quite different. Based on these observations as well as deep dives into the scientific literature, the author offers a view into the life of the fox: How it catches voles, birds and deer calves, how it raises its cubs and how it courts and escapes danger. The fox is portrayed as a curious, playful and extremely adaptable being. It is a caring parent, but also a fierce predator and a truly wild animal — in some ways “wilder than other wildlife”, as Tjernshaugen concludes.
The book also delves into the cultural history of the fox, and compares fictional foxes with the real ones People have interacted with real foxes in dramatically different ways across Europe. Wild recounts the fight against fox-borne rabies in continental Europe during the second half of the 20th century, more recent conflicts over fox hunting, and attempts to save the smaller Arctic Fox from its larger, red cousin that encroaches on its tundra habitats in the Scandinavian mountains.