Urban red foxes have successfully colonized cities across Europe and North America. Their welfare in urban environments involves both the benefits of reliable food access and risks from traffic, poisoning, and human persecution.
Urban fox welfare involves a complex mix of benefits and risks relative to rural conspecifics. Reliable anthropogenic food resources and lower predation pressure support good body condition and higher reproductive success. However, traffic mortality, mange disease spread in dense populations, and persecution by some urban residents create significant welfare risks. Mange-affected foxes suffer severely: sarcoptic mange causes intense pruritus, skin thickening, and hair loss leading to hypothermia and death without treatment. Treatment programs using medicated bait have successfully reduced mange in urban fox populations. Human food conditioning creates dependency relationships that can result in bold behavior subsequently punished as nuisance.