A litter of fox cubs were dubbed the Magnificent Seven after they were found alone in their den by builders and hand reared at a rescue centre before being released into the wild.
The cubs were days old, with their eyes still closed, when contractors removing a wall at a building site found them and called the Harper Asprey Wildlife Rescue centre in Windlesham, Surrey, in spring 2019.
Anne Brummer, who heads up the centre, said: “We were called out after the two builders initially found one thinking it was a kitten, then realised it was a fox cub.
“But as they removed the cubs, others kept falling out of this hole, and the builders kept catching them and ended up with seven.
“It was unusual to see that number together.”
The four male and three female cubs, named Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La and Ti, needed 24-hour care.
Anne said: “They were blind and deaf as they were so young they hadn’t developed these senses yet. They all needed regular feeding.
“But the foxes all went from strength to strength and we could see their personalities developing.”
They were successfully released into the wild in July 2019, are the stars of a two-part documentary, starting tonight on Channel 5.
Narrated by naturalist Steve Backshall, Fantastic Foxes: Their Secret World takes a look at one of the UK’s most divisive creatures.
Red foxes are the world’s most successful carnivore and the most widespread animal, living in every continent bar Antarctica. Steve said: “They are such a survivalist, they are resourceful, they are supremely adaptable to every single situation.
“There are few animals that polarise opinion like the fox does. So much about them is remarkable that we don’t understand, as so much of their world happens out of sight.”
For the series, cameras were put into a den to see how vixens give birth and behave with their cubs.
And the Magnificent Seven gave a unique opportunity for Keele University scientist Professor Dawn Scott to study how foxes gain their personalities, how much is down to nature or nurture.
The seven all thrived in the wild, five of them still regularly spotted.
Anne said: “We see them on our trap cameras. Mi had cubs this year. We didn’t see La for ages, but she appeared back in the winter."
