Reports of foxes breaking into chicken coops and slaughtering fowl, has helped propagate the idea that foxes kill for fun. But, this is actually… false. Foxes kill for survival.

Food is not always consistently available to a fox, so when it does find more food than it actually needs it will continue to hunt and store the excess. This is called caching. The fox buries his food to be consumed at a later date. Although this is an excellent survival strategy, it can sometimes go wrong.

For example, when a fox uncovers a nest of birds or a hen house, it will immediately kick into survival mode and use the opportunity to kill and cache food. In the commotion of the moment the fox may panic and bite whatever’s in sight, without actually retrieving many of the dead hens.

The result? Wasteful overkill. Although it may look like the fox has killed for pleasure, it is actually down to their innate survival strategies.