Fox - hand puppet for babies by Sterntaler

In fables the fox is the clever opponent of the other animals, the one who knows a short cut and keeps it to himself. The fox hand puppet by Sterntaler takes on that part, in orange plush with a neckerchief. Its two movable forepaws make it an obvious choice for dialogue scenes – fox against goose, fox against Punch, fox against whoever happens to be listening.

The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is Europe’s commonest wild member of the dog family and the only fox native to central Europe. Males reach a body length of 65 to 75 centimetres and females 62 to 68, plus a tail of 30 to 45 centimetres. Weight normally lies between five and eight kilograms, with vixens slightly lighter. When hunting, a fox behaves more like a cat than a dog: it stalks slowly, then makes its famous high pounce. Its menu covers small mammals, birds, fruit and, on damp grassland, earthworms, and surplus food is buried in shallow holes for later. Of 1,169 foxes examined in Berlin, half were only a year old and the oldest was eleven.

Did you know that foxes have a bark of their own, heard mostly between December and February? German hunters call it Ranzbellen, the mating-season bark: three to five hoarse syllables with the stress on the last one, used to keep in contact during the breeding season. Standing at the edge of a wood on a winter evening, you are far likelier to hear a fox than to see one.