Litro #90 Wildlife Teaser

OuTFOxed richArd lemmer Prowling the city with an urban fox hunter As part of our ‘Urban Life’ series, Markus Man goes on hunt with the latest sport that is shocking London The Guardian, Monday 30th January, 2013 Holding his Kraven Crossfire M-26 taser rifle in one hand and his night vision goggles in the other, Eric Carr peers through the darkness into the garden behind the house in Brixton, south London. It’s the dead of night but Eric has a clear view through his night vision goggles, standing on the car bonnet to peer over the garden wall from the supermarket car park. Any fox that enters his line of sight is in for a shocking surprise.

Pursing his lips around a specially designed whistle, Eric lets out a high-pitched squeak. In the darkness of the garden something dashes through a flowerbed. The next instant Eric pulls the trigger of his rifle and his quarry - a two-year-old vixen - is dead.

“They think the squeak is a mouse,“ says Eric. “They can’t help but move, even if it’s just to go prone. That’s when I shoot them in the head.”

Welcome to London’s latest sport - the world of Urban Fox Hunting.

At the beginning of what is to be a very long night, I meet Eric outside the Knacker’s Yard pub in Soho, the starting point for this year’s UK Urban Fox Hunting 5