Re: @gazthejourno
"they've probably all gone into the towns"
Oh they have, I grew up in the countryside and would only occasionally see foxes, and that would always be at least the other side of a field away, and they'd usually scarper as soon as you saw them.
Now I live in a big city, and I see foxes at least once a week, and some of them will walk up within a few meters.
Like rats, foxes are now a semi-domesticated animal.