Help a huge fox hole has appeared in the middle of my garden

[CircleofWillis]

A huge fox hole has appeared overnight in the centre of my garden. Would it be OK to fill it in and place a rubberised mat over the top or will I be trapping a fox and possibly cubs in the hole?

Leave it. As you say, you would be trapping cubs in there. Get proper advice from an animal shelter or read up about foxes. I wouldn't think there are fox experts on here....

It could be badgers....?

I’m in central London so I doubt we have badgers.

Any idea how large the hole underneath would be? It is just in front of our trampoline and I wouldn’t like to cause a cave-in.

Could it have been dug by a cat? Our mostly house cat asked to go outside yesterday for the first time in over a year. It seems a bit of a coincidence that the hole appeared immediately after that. Also our fox holes in the past have all been in discreet places - next to shed, under hedge etc not exposed in the lawn like this hole.

There's no way a cat would have done that. Defo a fox or badger.

Fox cubs are all independent by this time of the year I think.

Thank you everyone. I’ll seek some professional advice tomorrow and hold on filling in the hole.

You are lucky, do keep us posted. I'd be up all night waiting to see who emerged.