Are city foxes eating too much human food?

City foxes are eating a lot of human-made food, and there are concerns that it’s not good for them.

That's according to scientists from Nottingham Trent University, whose study shows that more than a third of the fox's meals come, either directly or indirectly, from food produced by humans.

That's a big difference from foxes in the countryside, who only get 6% of their food from us.

Foxes are omnivores, which means they eat both animals and plants.

In the wild, they feast on small animals, birds, insects, worms, fruit, and even leftovers from other animals.

Overall, the study showed that both city and country foxes were getting the biggest share of their food from birds.

However, in cities, foxes have found new types of food to feast on. Pet food was the second biggest food source, with the animals also tucking into thrown-away human leftovers.

Birds were the biggest food source for city and countryside foxes but the rest of their diets had big differences

To work out the diet of city foxes, the scientists at Nottingham Trent University analysed the whiskers from 93 of the animals to see what they've been eating over several weeks.

They found that in the city, 16% of a fox's food came from thrown-away human leftovers, while 19% came from pet food.

The study also suggests that female foxes are eating more food from people than males, possibly due to raising cubs.

Despite having an almost constant source of meals in cities, many of these foods aren’t healthy for foxes, as they can cause them to gain weight and may even make them sick.

Nottingham Trent University's Professor Dawn Scott, who's the senior author on the study, says that these foods can be high in fats and sugar, so "it would not be unreasonable to suggest that a degree of this food source is likely to be nutritionally poor for wildlife."

Another scientist who worked on the study, Dr Jonathan Fletcher, says that the diet could have an impact on a fox's "body condition and perhaps making them more susceptible to disease," adding that more work was needed to understand the potential health impacts of their city diet.