Day: October 18, 2025

Yellowjackets actress Ella Purnell has been delighting fans with footage of a fox that keeps showing up in her backyard. She has posted multiple Instagram Stories showing the creature sniffing around her sliding glass door and rejecting the food she offered. This is the best Purnell content since that caterpillar infestation. Ella Purnell and the backyard fox Purnell, who lives in London when she’s not busy filming the next season of Fallout, has been befriending a local fox over the past three years. Some of her Instagram Stories featuring the little guy have been preserved on YouTube. One clip shows her back door open a crack with the fox sticking its nose into the gap like it just wants to hang out. “Explain to me again why it’s a bad idea to open the door???” the caption reads. In the next, Purnell makes kissing noises at the animal as she films a closer shot of it beyond the door. “I MEAN. COME ON,” she wrote. Then she has to tell it to stop chewing on her outdoor lights because it’s “gonna be electrocuted.” Then she attempts to play with it through the glass by tapping on different spots. “What do you need?” she asks. “You need some food, some water?” Screenshots posted in the r/popculturechat sub on Reddit revealed more of the story. “3 years later, I finally fed the fox.” Unfortunately, she tried to feed it a whole carrot, which was not what it wanted.” According to the U. K. advocacy group Fox Guardians, foxes are omnivores but prefer fruit and seeds when they’re not after fresh meat or eggs. An apple slice would have been a better offering, though, to be clear, we’re not advocating for feeding wild animals, so don’t yell at us. Is it okay to feed foxes in the U. K.? On Reddit, debate soon sprang up around whether Purnell did something wrong by feeding the fox. Conservationists nearly always advise people to avoid feeding wild animals. Doing so encourages said animals to approach human spaces more often, which can lead to dangerous situations. “I hate to be the buzzkill, but as a conservation biologist, this is true & what I came to the comments to say,” wrote u/oklhe. “No matter how cute it is, if it’s not endangered, leave it alone. Many bears, in particular, get put down for this reason. This is not safe or healthy for the animal,” declared u/yellowdaisycoffee. “She needs to educate herself before further endangering this animal’s life.” At the same time, locals of London reported that the foxes there have grown so used to humans that they’re practically domesticated. Graham Taylor/Adobe Stock “Foxes are built different these days,” said u/bdaltz. “One literally walked into my home from the open back door, poked its head in the living room while I was watching TV, and casually walked out. People that don’t live in London and have never interacted with London foxes should just shut up and mind their own business,” opined u/ilikebiiiigdicks. “They’ve lived with humans here for hundreds of years and while not ‘domesticated’ are far less wild and feral than regular foxes.” There is, however, one more problem with keeping foxes around. “Foxes literally piss everywhere,” wrote u/BewareOfGrom. “Probably the pissiest animal.” The internet is chaotic-but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s newsletter here. Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online. The post “I caved”: Ella Purnell is documenting her attempts to befriend a backyard fox on Instagram appeared first on The Daily Dot.