Wildlife centre staff wear fox masks to care for cubs

Staff at a wildlife centre in the US have started to wear fox masks when caring for abandoned cubs.

It is one of a number of actions they have taken to try to increase the chances the young foxes have of being reintroduced into the wild eventually.

The thinking behind wearing the masks is that if staff can act like mother foxes, then it stops the babies imprinting on humans.

Imprinting is when a newborn or very young animal forms an attachment with a carer and learns behaviour from the first animal they see - this would usually be the mother because she is the first moving thing they would naturally see.

The centre says introducing the measures makes it more likely that they can be reintroduced to the wild

Staff at the Virginia wildlife centre have pretended to be red foxes as they cared for an orphaned cub.

As well as wearing masks, the cubs or kits sit on top of a large fluffy animal toy while being fed, to simulate the feel of being on their mother.

Melissa Stanley, who is the executive director at the centre, says they also try and minimise the amount of human sounds the staff make when they feed the babies.

She said: "It's important to make sure that the orphans that are raised in captivity do not become imprinted upon or habituated to humans."

The centre works with the Animal Education and Rescue Organisation there to try and release the young back into the wild.