AN unusually large litter of fox cubs was given in to a Tendring animal rescue centre after being found by a farmer.

Wildlives, in Frating Road, Thorrington, was delighted to receive a litter of ten young fox cubs. 

Rosie Catsord, the owner of the sanctuary, said: "We have had a litter of seven cubs before but ten is just unprecedented.

"Ten is such a big number of cubs, especially bearing in mind the mother only has eight teats."

Gazette: 'Naughty' - some of the fox cubs taken in'Naughty' - some of the fox cubs taken in (Image: Wildlives)

They were discovered as a farmer carried out some building work before he very kindly took them to the rescue centre.

Rosie added: "They were obviously a bit dehydrated by the time they got to us and one had a massive abscess and injury to her foot.

"But now they are doing really well and are getting very naughty. When you try and clean them out they run outside and charge about."

The organisation is now nursing the foxes back to health before it will release the cubs back into the wild when they are ready.

Wildlives aims to provide treatment and care for sick, injured and orphaned wildlife with the ultimate aim of rehabilitating them back into the wild.

For more information go to wildlives.org.uk/pages-ud2/about.htm.