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An intimate portrait of a mysterious and misunderstood animal.
If you look into the fox's amber eyes, you'll notice vertical pupils. With such feline eyes in a slender canine body, the fox is a relative of the dog and the wolf, but it hunts alone, like a cat. The fox lives close to people, both in the city and in the country, but it's wild, shy, and secretive.
Taking long walks in the early morning, equipped with wildlife cameras – and sometimes with his dog Topsy by his side – Andreas Tjernshaugen journeys into the forest hoping to encounter the foxes living just outside his small town in Norway. He knows the telltale signs of how to find a fox den, how to identify a pawprint in the snow, and the smells that foxes leave behind. He meets a vixen he named Blackback, and he watches carefully as she and other foxes hunt, play, and live together as families.
Throughout this captivating book, Tjernshaugen investigates the fox's place in our own cultural history – such as Reynard the Fox, the Scandinavian inspiration for Disney's Robin Hood, and the fables of Aesop, which depict foxes as sly and cunning, a reputation that may not be fully earned, Tjernshaugen argues. What is true is "the fox is wilder than other wildlife [...] and largely survives in spite of our plans and regulations, like an outlaw, so I see it as a symbol of freedom and independence".
Originally published in Norwegian in 2021 by Kagge Forlag as Reven: Portrett av et Villdyr.
1. The Den
2. On the Trail
3. Like Cat and Dog
4. Now the Fox Sleeps Too
5. Blackback
6. Of Mice and Voles
7. Why Roe Deer Fear the Fox
8. Toward Fall
9. Foxhunt
10. Twentieth Century Foxes
11. When the Fox Preaches
12. A Fox Book
13. Long Nights
14. Feeding Time at the Zoo
15. The Man With the Foxes
16. A Successful Species
17. The Cousin on the Crags
18. Quarantine
19. A Natural Experiment
20. Underground
21. A Den of Thieves
22. Urban Foxes
23. Farmed Foxes
24. Pet Foxes
25. Playful as Foxes
Andreas Tjernshaugen is a writer, editor, and part-time naturalist. His previous books for adults and children have been published to critical acclaim in several languages. He lives in a small town in Norway.
"Compelling and engaging. Tjernshaugen writes in an easy-to-read style that is full of insight and understanding. As I read his book, I felt like I was sitting beside him as he described fox behavior. He is a great example of what a naturalist can learn by simply going out into the wild and watching animals live out their lives. Highly recommended for anyone that wants to learn more about foxes."
– Rick McIntyre, author of The Rise of Wolf 8 and The Reign of Wolf 21
"Join a journey of quiet wonder: scrambling through blueberry bushes to spy a den, listening for barks over a moonlit field, and watching fox pups explore beside a hiking trail. Tjernshaugen has created a beautiful portrait of an instantly recognizable yet elusive animal."
– Adele Brand, author of The Hidden World of the Fox
"The prevailing characteristic of Finding the Fox is its beautiful thoughtfulness. Andreas Tjernshaugen is a nature writer's nature writer. This is a book about finding out about foxes, about discarding myths, about those priceless insights that only occur through painstaking fieldwork."
– Jim Crumley, author of Seasons of Storm and Wonder
