People always have a fixed concept that foxes are carnivores. However, meat is not the only food for foxes. Foxes' diet varies as their habitats shift and locate, for instance, foxes which live near by the ocean have no problem with catching fish and crabs for meal; meanwhile fruits are also one of their diets. There are also differences in meal between urban foxes and rural foxes. According to Jo Jackson (2021) “Popular culture gives the impression that foxes live on rabbits, but they actually eat a wide variety of food. They are highly adaptable and their diet varies with location and seasonal availability.” Which means that foxes are able to hunt under most environments and during all seasons. For example, urban foxes usually hunt mice and rats as city people's activities attract a lot of those; while rural foxes take birds and pigeons as prey. Foxes are also able to locate garbage bins which were filled with kitchen waste in order to serve themselves a meal. Whereas, forest foxes could have fruit and insects for meals. Except for the type of diets that are various, the way foxes hunt also varies as their prey are divided. In the following paragraphs, I am going to describe how different kinds of foxes hunt. They are not exactly the same in process, but similarity could be found among all types of hunting process of different foxes.

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    In the first stage of the hunting process of the foxes, they tend to ambush. Their brilliant sights and ears acquire them the skill of noticing and hearing the sound that their prey make, as well as dooming the position where their prey are located. At this stage, they are not going to take action but waiting for a perfect timing to catch. Take the foxes which live in snowy environments as example, they hide themselves by digging holes in the snow, and jumping into them. The way they hide could help them to avoid their prey to notice them in a whole scene of white, as they have somehow an apparent fur color under the white. Snow foxes take advantage of the environment to ambush, as all the other kinds of foxes do.

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     Next, foxes are going to quietly stalk their prey until the distance is suitable for them to pounce on their prey. The way foxes hunt is so similar to cats, which are both quiet and quick. Once they find it a neat distance for pouncing their prey, they take action silently but fatally. For your information, urban foxes which take mice and rats as their daily diet usually hide under shadow and behind the wall. As mice and rats are sensitive, they can be scared to escape just by hearing a slight sound of a human being pushing a door. Therefore, urban foxes usually don’t hide behind rubbish bins as they produce loud noise even accidentally hitting them. Urban foxes make use of daylight or dark environments to hide under shadow to avoid being noticed by their prey. Once their prey is getting near them, they attack immediately.

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    After doing a pounce, foxes pin their prey with their paws before killing them with a bite on the neck. Why is it the neck? As it is the spot of killing a living creature. It is the last step in the foxes' hunting process. However, forest foxes don’t do much as the foxes in urban areas and the foxes in the snow do. They should just climb up to the tree for fruit or insects. The common ground between forest foxes and any other kind of foxes is that they also hit the killing spot once they caught their prey, they hit the insects with their paw and squeeze them to death by stepping on them to the ground.

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    To sum up, the hunting process of the foxes is a series of ambushing, stalking, and hitting the killing spot. The process of the foxes is no more than three steps, which look pretty simple and quite easy to understand. However, a process as simple as the foxes' is an example showing us how small creatures survive wisely in any environment. Unlike lions and tigers, size is not a big advantage for foxes when it comes to engaging in a fight directly, so they make use of their flexibility and speed to hide and seek. They also do not have transparent skin or any visual protection to help them to hide in the light of the tree, so they climb upon the tree or make themselves invisible by digging to the snow or hiding in the corner.  The wisdom of the foxes’ hunting process is also inspiring for how we should live our lives. Even, we don’t have great sights and ears like the foxes which make them good hunters; we also don’t have paws and sharp teeth which could make us fatal. We do have the ability to learn to be as patient as the foxes, if we are too rushed to reach something we want to achieve, we might somehow produce a great loss out of the lack of preparation. Be like a fox, wait until the perfect timing, and give your best shot.