@why-animals-do-the-thing why do foxes steal shit from ppl? They’re so cute but what is the purpose?
It’s because they’re habituated to people and have learned the can be a source of food. This fox obviously is no longer afraid of people, and has learned that it’s generally beneficial to it to tolerate their presence long enough to steal / get something - possibly because it’s frequently edible. Given how close it’s willing to get and how it approaches, I’d hazard a guess this is an animal who has actually been fed by people before.
As much as it’s cute on the surface, wildlife that are habituated to people to this degree are put at a huge amount of risk - from human/animal interactions (if someone gets bit or attacked), from health issues due to potentially improper diets, and from cars due to spending a higher fraction of their time than normal in settled areas.
