A UNIVERSITY of Brighton experiment will test just how clever urban foxes really are.

BBC Two’s Autumnwatch, which starts tonight at 8pm, will be featuring fox tests and tasks developed by the university’s mammalian biologist Dr Dawn Scott.

Dr Scott said: “We are interested in how animals have adapted to urban habitats.

“Urban habitats are structurally complex environments with a wide range of food sources but sometimes those food are in difficult places to get to – so an animal that can solve problems quicker may do better in urban habitats.

“Urban environments also have lots of novel objects – if foxes are fearful they may not do as well in an urban environment as a fox that can quickly habituate to new objects.