Morton, B.; Soulsbury, C. D.

Global declines in biodiversity and human health are linked to declining human-nature connectedness, i.e., a person\'s subjective sense of their relationship with nature. Frequent and positive wildlife experiences can foster stronger nature connectedness, improving pro-environmentalism and health. Red foxes are one of the most \"liked\" mammals in countries such as the UK, but urbanisation has led to bolder fox behaviour, increasing the risk of human-fox conflict and reducing public attitudes and tolerance towards foxes in some communities. Whether human-fox interactions influence (positively or negatively) nature connectedness and public health, such as general anxiety, is unclear. We investigated the impact of people\'s attitudes, tolerance, and experiences with wild foxes on nature connectedness and general anxiety by administering an online questionnaire to 230 participants. Nature connectedness was weaker in urban settings and positively related to people\'s subjective experiences with foxes, measured in terms of their perceived frequency (e.g., rare versus often) and quality (e.g., negative versus positive). These subjective experiences were positively related to public attitudes and tolerance towards foxes, but unrelated to people\'s level of anxiety. Strategies to improve nature connectedness may benefit from managing public attitudes and experiences with foxes through better conservation, education, urban planning, and community engagement. These efforts should ideally balance the needs of humans and foxes without altering fox health and behaviour beyond what is natural for the species, particularly in cities where people\'s opportunities to connect with nature are already heavily depleted.