Amazing moment two-legged fox hops around on couple’s lawn as it hunts for food

If someone claimed to have seen a two-legged fox running across the garden, you’d tell them to pull the other one.

And Phil Carter did indeed assume it was a joke when his wife Jane said she’d seen a fox with two legs ‘bolt upright like a human’ on their lawn this Christmas.

‘My wife saw it, she then shouted at me and I came through to the kitchen with my camera on my phone’, Mr Carter told the Mail.

‘I thought she was joking at first or had misseen it. It was 3pm in the afternoon and I thought it could have been a trick of the light but no, there it was, bright as day walking about on just two legs.’

If someone claimed to have seen a two-legged fox running across the garden, you’d tell them to pull the other one

And Phil Carter did indeed assume it was a joke when his wife Jane said she’d seen a fox with two legs ‘bolt upright like a human’ on their lawn this Christmas

The couple, from Ilkeston, Derbyshire, had just finished putting up their Christmas tree when they caught sight of the curious creature on December 17.

‘It was fascinating,’ Mr Carter, 71, said. ‘It stood bolt upright and ran like a human being on two legs. It just had two little fairy stumps at the back.’

After a while the fox stood up and ran away. But Mrs Carter, 72, went out with some food and the creature jumped back over the couple’s garden wall to get some.

Mr Carter said foxes are regular visitors in their large garden as local business owners have around 30 acres of fields at the back of their house.

Wildlife experts from Derbyshire Nature Reserve, who got in touch with the couple after seeing the extraordinary footage, said the fox was likely born with the deformity.

‘The experts believe it was most likely born that way, because if it had been run over by a car or hit by a combine harvester then the whole of its back would have been damaged, which doesn’t appear to be the case,’ Mr Carter said.

Nor does Mr Carter, who owns Carters Flooring (Leisure) Ltd in nearby Stanton-by-Dale, believe hunting is the cause. 

‘We do have some trail hunting in the area, but they aren’t allowed to kill the foxes any more.’

Mr Carter told the Mail he believes the fox perhaps learned to walk that way around other four-legged cubs.

‘This animal showed no signs of being underfed. It can clearly hunt and eat. You just wouldn’t believe how fast it is. It stood up, bolted as fast as a human child would run.’

The Carters have grown fond of having foxes in their garden and Mrs Carter has even played with cubs when they visit the garden in the spring.