Icelandic foxes fight to the death

Photographer Einar Guðmann captured these beautiful images of Icelandic foxes in the remote wilds of Hornstrandir in the West Fjords. Guðmann spent a week in the area and the foxes, scared at first, quickly got used to sight of humans. 

Guðmann spent the majority of the day in a hole he made in the snow where he waited to capture the perfect photograph. On one of the days, he heard loud howling which turned out to be the mating cries of a fox couple in the throes of mating. The third fox, a male, approached the couple as they were mating and attacked them. The vixen managed to escape and then the two males began a bloody battle. 

"Teeth sunk into faces, eyes, legs and throat. The rage was boundless," writes Guðmann. The fox who was mating managed to bite the other fox in the face and tried to suffocate him in the deep layer of snow. He got away, defeated and severely wounded. 

The pair, who had been mating were attacked by a third fox. The angry growls and howls were heard for miles. mbl.is/Einar Guðmann

The winter in Hornstrandir, a remote and uninhabited part of Iceland has been particularly severe. mbl.is/Einar Guðmann

Foxes get locked together for a short while after mating. mbl.is/Einar Guðmann