4ft beast proof that foxes are getting bigger

Weighing almost two stone and measuring four feet from his nose to the tip of his tail, this is thought to be the biggest fox ever found in Britain.

Twice the normal size of the species, it was trapped and killed in a garden in the South East after apparently devouring a pet cat.

The discovery has fuelled fears that urban foxes are hunting new prey after getting bigger and bolder as they gorge themselves on leftovers, including treats put out for them by animal lovers.

The animals’ rise was highlighted last year after twin babies were mauled in their east London home.

Nine-month-old Lola and Isabella Koupparis were left scratched and scarred after a fox jumped into their cot in the night, leading to calls for the animals to be culled as pests.

The new giant was caught by vet Keith Talbot at his parents’ home in Maidstone, Kent, on Boxing Day after they told him they believed a fox had killed their black and white pet cat, Amber.

He said today: ‘Obviously, they were very upset. Amber was 19 and liked sleeping on the front door mat.

‘Dad had seen a fox come down the drive and stalk up to her a few nights before. He phoned me and said would a fox attack the cat? I said - perhaps a bit naively - I don’t think so, she would wake up and see it off.

‘A couple of days later, dad heard a commotion outside and looked up to see a fox disappearing up the drive and the next morning found parts of the cat on the lawn. Unfortunately, the family pet was no more.’

Mr Talbot, 28, who works in Scotland, went to stay with his parents for Christmas and put down a trap to try to catch the offender. On the first night, he caught a 14lb fox and the next night the giant specimen, which weighed 26.5lb. Both were humanely destroyed.

The Handbook of British Mammals says the average fox weighs up to 15lb, with reports of up to 22lb.

Mr Talbot said: ‘I’ve seen cats and foxes in the garden before and they normally give each other a wide berth

‘Cats can usually defend themselves and are not on the menu for a fox. But when a fox gets that size, and particularly in bad weather, it appears it may become desperate and go for a cat.’

He was surprised at the size of the fox, but it was only when he showed it to his friend Roy Lupton, a veteran fox shooter who weighed it, that he realised he could have just caught the country’s largest fox.

Mr Talbot said: ‘I’m not against foxes, I think everything in nature has a place.

But there is a limit and when something like that happens and they start eating cats, it probably tells you that the balance of nature has been upset by humans feeding them and that it’s time for controls to come in.’

Mr Lupton, 35, a financial adviser as well as a keen field sports enthusiast, said: ‘It was a huge fox.

The worrying aspect is that the urban fox’s behaviour is changing.

‘They are getting bigger because some people feed them because they like to see them in their gardens. With the additional size comes added confidence and then they start taking on new prey - and once they find an easy food source they will capitalise on it.’

Derek Yalden, president of the Mammal Society, said: ‘I would say it’s an exception rather than an indication that foxes are getting bigger, although in towns they are bolder because they’re more used to seeing humans.’

The giant fox’s discovery was revealed today on the internet-based Fieldsports Channel - and was pictured next to a boy of seven, to give a sense of scale.

Presenter Charlie Jacoby said: ‘If it took a cat, who’s to say it wasn’t on the path to taking a child?

‘If I lived in the suburbs with children, I would think twice about leaving the baby out in the pram on a warm summer night knowing outsize foxes are out there.’

Tomorrow the channel will seek to confirm that an even bigger fox has been found after a man contacted them to say he shot one weighing 34lb in Somerset last year.

Stunning shark picture looks exactly like 'Bruce' from Pixar blockbuster

Just like Finding Nemo this hungry shark looks like it has learnt 'fish are friends not food'.

In the Pixar blockbuster, great white shark Bruce gives up his fish-munching ways at an alcoholics anonymous style, self help meet.

And as this incredible real life image shows, sharks in the real world seem to be following in Bruce's fin-steps.

The image taken by underwater photographer Daniel Selmeczi, shows a school of pilot fish swarming around an oceanic whitetip shark.

Pilot fish are carniverous and are often found in the company of sharks, manta ray and giant turtles.

The relationship is mutually beneficial - the fish gain protection from the larger predators known as 'mutualism' where different species exist side-by-side while the shark is kept clear of parasites.

The oceanic whitetip is the pilot fish's preferred companion, eating 'ectoparasites' from the sides of their body.

A similar harmonious co-existance can be seen on land with birds entering the mouths of crocodiles to clean it out without fear of being eaten alive.

Pilot fish are also carnivores so they have the added benefit that when a shark tears its meal to pieces they can share it and eat the scrap bits that fall off.

The name given to the pilot fish either comes from the belief that they helped to guide ships safely to shore in shallower waters or they helped sharks towards food.

Such is the close relationship between the two different species that sailors have reported the pilot fish staying with a boat for up to six weeks after their host shark has been caught.

The image bears an uncanny resemblance to the poster for the film Finding Nemo, which features Bruce the shark surrounded by hundreds of fish and other marine life.

Daniel, 32, from Hungary took the image while diving in the Red Sea in Egypt.

He said: 'I have been taking underwater photographs since 2002 and have travelled to Egypt, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Indonesia and Malaysia in search of the perfect photograph.

'And this one is one of my favourites, it's rare to capture fish surrounding a shark quite like this.

'I was shocked when someone pointed out my picture looked like a scene from Finding Nemo, I love the film so it has just made me like my image even more.'

'Luckily this shark is friendly, just like Bruce, so I was in no danger photographing it.

'Many people are terrified of sharks especially with the attacks in Egypt recently but Oceanic Whitetip sharks don't eat humans, they eat fish, so I vote we save the sharks.'

Man shoots dead mysterious grey-skinned creature that looks like the legendary chupacabra

Is this mysterious creature a fabled chupacabra, or just a follicly challenged raccoon?

The bald, grey-skinned creature was shot and killed in Lebanon Junction, Kentucky, after it emerged from woodland into the garden of a home.

But the animal, which has large ears, whiskers and a long tail, has sparked intense debate on the internet, with some claiming it is one of the mythical chupacabras.

Stories of the blood-sucking creature began circulating in Puerto Rico 15 years ago and since then tales of the havoc it causes have swept from Chile through Mexico and into southern U.S. states.

Mark Cothren shot the animal as it walked into his front yard because he did not recognise it.

He told Wave3.com: 'I was like "every animal has hair, especially this time of year!".

'What puzzled me is how something like that could survive through a winter with no hair.

'Everybody is getting very curious, you know. The phone is ringing off the hook. It's kind of a mystery right now.'

The animal was the size of a house cat, but some people have speculated it could even be a legendary chupacabra.

The chupacabra - also known as the 'goat sucker' - is believed to kill goats and suck their blood.

People have claimed to have seen it in South America, Mexico, Puerto Rico and even Texas and Oklahoma.

Sam Clites, from Louisville Zoo, said he would have to see the animal in person to determine what species it was. He said he thought it was a raccoon or dog.

'It's hard to just what an animal is from just a photograph. This is an animal that's native to our area, most likely that is suffering from some type of disease,' he added.

He added that many animals with severe disease lost fur and could appear unrecognisable as a result.

Mr Cothren said he was keeping the animal so he could hand it over to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources for analysis.

Cross-eyed possum bears a remarkable resemblance to the rodent from Ratatouille

The Oscar-winning film studio Pixar is renowned for its stunningly realistic animations but at one German zoo, life is imitating art.

Heidi, a cross-eyed possum set to move full time to a wildlife centre in Leipzig, looks uncannily like Remy the rat, the hero of Disney Pixar's 2007 hit Ratatouille.

But while Remy dreamed of escaping his rodent upbringing and becoming a chef in a gourmet Parisian restaurant, Heidi will have to tackle her unfortunate ocular abnormality before aspiring to larger goals.

Pictured today, Heidi looks bemused to discover her new surroundings as she prepares to be relocated.

But the 18-month-old isn't surprised - she's merely suffering from an abnormality found in her species.

The tree-climbing creatures are famed for their bulbous eyes but crossed-eyes like Heidi's are a rarity caused by improperly aligned eyeballs.

The marsupial was born in Odense, Denmark, in May 2008 but will soon be moved to a tropical house at the Leipzig zoo.

Opossums are typically solitary creatures but it would appear Heidi will be able to hynoptise any unwelcome intruders into her new home in Saxony.

Heidi's species are known for 'playing possum' in the face of danger and pretending to be sick or dead to avoid an attack.

But for this youngster, playing dead is only a back-up option if a hint to look into her bulbous eyes fails to put a predator into a trance.

"Headless" penguin

There are times when we would all like to hide our heads in shame.

But our impossible dream is a daily reality for these two King Penguins on the South Atlantic island of South Georgia.

Thanks to their double-jointed necks, the 'headless' pair merrily go about their business.

When a penguin fancies a scratch or two, he simply bends his head completely over and attacks the area that is bothering him with his beak.

Such a manoeuvre guarantees there is no such thing as a 'hard-to-reach spot'... and makes for an amusing natural image.

The King Penguin is the second largest species of penguin, second only to the Emperor Penguin.

Mainly found in the South Atlantic and the northernmost waters of the northern Antarctic, there are believed to be around 2.23million King Penguins and their numbers are increasing.

Rare photos of squid species that can leap through the air to dodge predators

These remarkable photos show one of the most bizarre sights in the natural world.

A British photographer captured a particular type of squid which use jet propulsion to leap out of the sea and fly up to 65ft.

The flying squid swim in shoals and leap from the surface of the water and are often mistaken for the more common flying fish.

The squid actually fly looking backwards, with their tentacles dangling behind them and fins acting like wings, keeping them balanced in the air.

Graham Ekins, 60, a retired deputy head teacher from Boreham, Essex, took the shots in the waters south of Japan.

At first he thought the flying creatures were fish, but when he realised they were squid he got off a few snaps.

They show the eight inch-long blue creatures - Todarodes pacificus in Latin - flying through the air after leaping to avoid predators.

The bow wave from the boat made the squid believe they were being hunted and their instinctive mechanism is to leap out of the sea.

Graham said: 'These squid are often mistaken for flying fish and at first that's what I thought these were.

'I am retired and do a lot of travelling taking wildlife pictures and I was lucky to get these shots.

'These were taken about 1,000 kilometres off the Bonin Islands in the north Pacific, just in Japanese waters.

'There was a group of about 20 flying squid and they sensed danger from the bow wave of the boat and their defence mechanism is to leap out of the water.'

He added: 'However, there is a bird called the red-footed booby - which is like a gannet - that waits for them to leap from the water and then picks them off in the air.

'They have a lot of predators and are an important source of food in Japan. They are prolific reproduces and only live for about a year.

'There are not many photos of them jumping, but people do find them on the decks of their boats in the mornings.

'They jump for about 20 metres - which is a lot less than the flying fish - and use a jet propulsion system.

'They sort of fly backwards with their eyes, tentacles and beak at the rear and their fins act as stabilisers.'

Last terrifying moments of a young buffalo as a hungry crocodile strikes

In the wild only the fittest survive as this young buffalo found out to its cost.

These were the final moments of a calf before a hungry crocodile did what comes naturally and dragged it down to a watery grave.

Astonishingly, the buffalo's herd did nothing to protect the animal or ward off the predator.

These dramatic images were captured by British tourist Donna Bourdon during her recent visit to South Africa's MalaMala Game Reserve in Johannesburg.

The incident took place at the Bicycle Crossing Hippo Pools as a group watched a herd of buffalo.

The crocodile surfaced and made its way to the water’s edge, bumping its way between the buffalo as they drank, which didn’t seem to concern them at all.

Then, without warning, it latched onto one of the calves.

But still the herd remained calm and quite unperturbed by what was happening. The calf’s mother walked up to it from time to time, but made no attempt at all to help

Normally very protective of their offspring, it was almost as if the herd didn’t realise the threat the crocodile posed.

It took more than two hours for the calf to finally give up its battle and succumb to the jaws of the mammoth reptile.