Human attitudes towards urban wildlife are often positive, but this was not the case just a few decades ago, as exemplified by urban red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) in Finland. Mostly appreciated by townsfolk today, they were considered as ‘noxious’ and ‘threatening’ beasts in the past. Red foxes have strong ecological and behavioural flexibilities, granting them the capacity to colonise varied habitat, including cities. However, red fox reproduction inside cities is a recent phenomenon. In this study, we explored the development of human-wildlife attitudes as a possible limiting factor on red fox urbanisation processes, particularly on their reproduction.  Negative attitudes, manifested as persecution, may greatly impact the colonising possibilities of urban wildlife. Positive attitudes, on the other hand, might encourage wildlife to live closer to humans. Consequently, highlighting the relationship between wildlife colonisation of cities and human attitudes is an important, but poorly understood subject. In a time when more and more environments are urbanised, wildlife must rapidly adapt to swiftly changing conditions to survive. Understanding the factors that either impede or facilitate urbanisation processes can promote sustainable management and conservation of urban wildlife. 

Our study area is the whole country, with a local case study focusing on the city of Turku in South-west Finland. Our research material consisted of all available data on the evolution of human attitudes towards red foxes in Turku. We conducted a descriptive literature review based on 1) newspapers articles, 2) Finnish Legislation texts on environment, 3) hunters’ publications such as magazines or books, and 4) scientific studies about red foxes, all published between 1347 to 2025. 

We found that persecution of urban red foxes was very common in Finland earlier on, and human attitudes started to become more tolerant only after a post-war decline of urban agriculture in the 1950s. Simultaneously, urban red foxes started to reproduce within Turku urban areas only in the 1990s. Thereby, we observed a potential link between the timings of attitude change and reproduction.