I looked out and quickly saw one Red Fox sitting quietly at the edge of a bush adjacent to the parking area of one of the houses diagonally opposite my flat. I then quickly saw another emerge from under one of the cars parked in the same area and this was the individual that was vocalising.
I watched both of them for about 5 minutes before the vocalising one ran off down Czarina Rise towards Basildon Road and the other one trotted off more calmly in the opposite direction before disappearing up the grassy track in to the wooded area.
Judging by their size, both these Red Foxes were cubs but I have no idea if they are from the family that I have been watching up near St. Nicholas Church. Those cubs are now ranging quite a distance from my regular Red Fox watching location but do they range as far as where I live? Maybe I go to see them and they have come to see me 😀.
In 1963, the German ethologist Gunter Tembrock documented 28 different types of Red Fox call with an audible range of 100Hz to 5000Hz. These included different calls for greeting, submission, alarms, contact, etc.
More recently, in a 1993 paper to the journal Bioacoustics, Nick Newton-Fisher and his colleagues provided an analysis of Red Fox vocalisations based on 585 recordings. Using these recordings and their observations of Red Fox vocal behaviour in the field, Newton-Fisher and his team were able to identify 20 different types of call, 8 of which are used exclusively by cubs.
Subsequently, in an article in the February 2004 issue of BBC Wildlife Magazine, Stephen Harris wrote that Red Foxes make “more than 20 different call types”, calling throughout the year but being most vocal in winter.
The vocalisation that I heard, and which I have also heard at the Red Fox watching location, is known as “gekkering”. This is a series of stuttering, rattling and throaty vocalisations used when Red Foxes encounter a rival. It is heard amongst adults in aggressive encounters (of which there are many since Red Foxes are highly territorial) and especially during the courting season from rival males or vixens rejecting advances.
However, “gekkering” is also heard amongst young Red Fox cubs playing or play-fighting.
The term “gekkering” was described by the Scottish zoologist and conservationist David Macdonald in the 1970s who said in 2014 of "gekkering": "I believe it comes from the German word gekkern, and I adapted it, and it is probably onomatopoeic".
Here is a sound file of Red Foxes "gekkering" ....
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