First British sighting of rare black fox captured on film
According to legend, it brings doom and disaster to anyone who sees it. But an amateur photographer could hardly believe his luck when he spotted an extremely rare black fox. Kevin Hehir, 48, from Preston, saw it in a Lancashire cemetery. He said: 'I thought it was the Devil looking at me. Then I thought, "It's a myth, there's no such thing". But I managed to get right up to it and it's definitely a young black fox. The black fox is in fact an ordinary red fox which has black fur or is going through a phase where the colour of its fur is particulary dark. The phenomenon is normally seen in growing cubs and generally the fox will develop to have a dark chestnut coat. However a few red foxes will remain black due to a rare genetic flaw dating back hundreds of years. In North America, foxes with black coats are often found with a variable amount of white or white-banded hair in the dark coat. Centuries-old superstitions are often found attached to black animals, ...