Google battling 'fox infestation' on roof of £1B London office

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/09/google-foxes-roof-london-kings-cross-office

by pseudolus • 1 year ago

75 54 1 year ago

theguardian.com

more_corn• 1 year ago

Have they considered aerial fox hunt?

hengheng• 1 year ago

London has foxes, and they'll dig a hole where they can, and they are hard to catch?

Give me a break.

vidarh3• 1 year ago

London is full of foxes, that are so unafraid of people that it's not uncommon for them casually walking past in the middle of the day.

ClawsOnPaws• 1 year ago

If those foxes were to spontaneously combust, then Google would have a Firefox problem.

awesome_dude2• 1 year ago

At issue is that the foxes are (slightly) electrocuting themselves, whilst in a metallic bath - thus they are being... chromed.

Qem• 1 year ago

Sparkfox.

looofooo0• 1 year ago

Great culture reference for the fox problem of London: The Strange Tale of the Crack Fox The Mighty Boosh https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008fm1c

fidotron• 1 year ago

I always thought the squirrels were the serious problem: https://www.brixtonbuzz.com/2020/04/the-pumped-up-squirrel-o...

BLKNSLVR• 1 year ago

"I'ma done a tummy shame"

itsanaccount2• 1 year ago

Have they considered living in harmony with other sentient creatures?

deepsun• 1 year ago

On grand scale -- it's possible. But try to live in harmony in a shared space with a wild fox or a wolf. Not good for you, not for the sentient creatures.

wredcoll• 1 year ago

Wait, what?

I live in harmony near lots of wild things, including some foxes. They stay on the outside of my house and I stay on the inside. It's not "perfect" but it works pretty well.

itsanaccount2• 1 year ago

I ain't saying this in the hypothetical, here's the flowing spring wetlands that is my front yard. https://ibb.co/7dmnC4x5

Not everything is perfect. I am not "kill nothing." But I try very hard to live well with nature by trying to understand it.

And its good for all of us.

rodgerd• 1 year ago

Foxes live happily in urban areas all over Britain. The problem here is the Google employees.

vidarh3• 1 year ago

I used to have a fox regularly lounging in my gazebo right outside my office window in South London. He didn't care about me unless I opened the door (at which point he would wander off), and didn't bother me at all. It was not a problem beyond a bit of fur on one of the pillows that he liked to sleep on.

London foxes are used to people.

rsynnott• 1 year ago

Foxes aren't particularly dangerous to humans (at least in countries where rabies has been eradicated, like the UK); far less so than, say, dogs.

When I'm walking home very late at night (urban area) I'll often pass one or two. They're just... there.

mushroomba• 1 year ago

I don't understand why this is a problem. The roof is surely occupied by birds, rats, and mice. Is the roof designed to include the natural world or not?

pimlottc2• 1 year ago

some foxes had begun to dig burrows in the perfectly manicured grounds

Obviously the landscaping was designed to look pretty and win awards, not to host actual wildlife

woodruffw• 1 year ago

Another possible interpretation is that the grounds are laid out such that rainfall doesn't cause the roof's soil to erode and wash off.

(This is without any positive or negative value judgement, just an observation that we don't have to reach for "it needs to look pretty" to explain why having foxes on the roof isn't ideal.)

highpost• 1 year ago

Menlo Park is not in San Francisco.

CalChris• 1 year ago

This and Google doesn't even have an office in Menlo Park.

neilv• 1 year ago

It's karma, for Google effectively seizing the beloved public roof garden in Cambridge (USA), for their offices.

Now the 'secret garden' refuge of stressed MIT students, office workers, and locals... has shrunk, and been re-landscaped, as a kinda creepy Google-style nano-campus party roof deck, which feels like you're trespassing, and you're the view for their windows and the new surveillance cameras.

The fox spirits know your selfish transgressions.

https://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/05/22/despite-urging-new-b...

https://www.cambridgeday.com/2012/07/19/public-loses-40-of-r...

https://www.cambridgeday.com/2013/09/12/one-year-later-agenc...

https://www.cambridgeday.com/2015/06/23/ex-cra-official-pays...

dhosek• 1 year ago

I’m looking at the picture and the roof is many stories up in the sky. I think they’ve got foxes in more places than just the roof.

flufluflufluffy• 1 year ago

Right, how the heck did the foxes get on the ROOF in the first place?!

hulitu3• 1 year ago

Right, how the heck did the foxes get on the ROOF in the first place?!

Just like with all Google SW: through RCE. /s

0x38B• 1 year ago

The artist's impression in the original source on the 'fox infestation' (1) may provide a sense of scale.

1: https://www.londoncentric.media/p/why-lime-bikes-beep

FridayoLeary• 1 year ago

Just shoot them. It may sound incredible to brits but that's actually legal.

I assume, based on no evidence that foxes keep down the rat population. I see far more foxes then rats. Also they cause less problems then rats so i tolerate them.

Havoc• 1 year ago

Just leave them. London foxes are pretty harmless and shy. Getting closer than 2m to one is quite a feat so it’s not like they’re bothering anyone.

Unlike say dogs off leashes that will absolutely harass people while owner stands there looking bewildered

teruakohatu• 1 year ago

The article says they are digging barrows. I can understand that when a company spends an exorbitant amount of money on a building with a roof garden and the costs of ongoing maintenance they are not happy it is being dug up, especially if they are digging down to the water barrier.

On the other hand I think it is pretty cool to have foxes on the roof.

gerdesj2• 1 year ago

Foxes, pigeons, rats etc are generally described as vermin yet they perform vital ecological functions and are somehow maligned for performing it.

They are scavengers (int al). They help keep the place cleaner in return for a small amount of crap and some extra disease vectors.

What I'd really like to hear is that a bunch of clever kids at Google realise that a city has an ecology all of its own and that they need to fit into it and not the other way around. If they have managed to attract foxes then make the best of it.

I wonder if there are there any Plane trees on it?

JumpCrisscross• 1 year ago

can understand that when a company spends an exorbitant amount of money on a building with a roof garden and the costs of ongoing maintenance they are not happy it is being dug up

The point of the roof garden is to create a delightful space. Just give the foxes their rabies shots and count your lucky stars that you got such an attraction.

spacephysics• 1 year ago

Fox also urinate and their’s is notoriously poignant

hliyan• 1 year ago

Never had a particularly emotive thought under fox urine exposure, but the stuff is quite pungent.

cjrp• 1 year ago

We get quite a few foxes in our garden, and they leave their mess and their urine does absolutely stink.

hristov• 1 year ago

Of course when you read the article to the end you realize that by “fox infestation” they mean one fox.

cosmicgadget• 1 year ago

"House Mozilla sends its regards."

e2021• 1 year ago

Facebook has had foxes in the roof garden in MPK21 for years and they don't seem to cause any problems. Is it a different type of fox?

hulitu3• 1 year ago

It's British.

vouaobrasil• 1 year ago

Well, Google's office is on ground that was once home to foxes, so they're in the wrong – it's karma. Google is the infestation, not the foxes.

pfdietz• 1 year ago

Oh no. What next, salmon in their reflecting pool?

S0y• 1 year ago

How the fuck did he get on the roof??

anitil• 1 year ago

I'm not sure if I've missed this, but .... how did the foxes get up to the roof? Can they climb?

vidarh3• 1 year ago

Presumably got in during construction.

lesser-shadow• 1 year ago

Firefox reigns supreme

Google battling 'fox infestation' on roof of £1B London office

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