The fox cubs, which found a home at the Poku lasteaed in Tartu, have been captured and are being cared for, though the mother remains at large.

Kindergarten director Olivia Voltri said: "Let's just say that up to now, the first thing the children think about when they come to kindergarten in the morning is how the foxes are doing. Has the mother fox been caught? And in the evening when they go home, they regale the stories to their parents, saying we're living alongside a family of foxes."

The issue spreads further in Estonia's second city than just the Poku kindergarten, as urban foxes are an increasingly widespread phenomenon.

Biologist Tiit Randveer said: "When the fight against rabies started, about 20 years ago, the fox population rose significantly. That rise is linked to the appearance of foxes in Tartu. Of course, there had been the occasional one before, just like a random moose might pop up, but now they have found that it's quite suitable to live here."

Tanel Türna, head of the hunting and aquatic life bureau at the Environmental Board, said: "The foxes living in the city have chosen this as their habitat and have produced offspring in various places — admittedly not in kindergartens every year — and their offspring also remain inside the city. The urban population is slowly starting to grow in this way."

The fox secretly dug a den on kindergarten grounds, and while a fox was first spotted in February, it wasn't until later that staff realized a whole family had moved in. So far, three cubs have been caught, while the mother remains on-site.

The fox cubs are currently being cared for in a forest property by a contractor, with strict efforts to avoid human contact. Türna said: "We are minimizing human contact, to avoid habituation," noting they are being fed birds, to encourage natural hunting skills. Once experts deem them ready, the cubs will be released back into the wild at the same location.

Efforts to reunite the cubs with their mother are ongoing. "There is a trail camera set up in the area," Türna said, adding that the mother was still seen near the traps as recently as Thursday night. Her presence near the site gives hope: "She'll likely go in eventually — motivated either by anxiety or the food that's available there."

Türna added the mother fox won't likely stay in the vicinity of the kindergarten much longer, as it's too confined a space. If capture efforts fail, the assumption is she will return to her broader territory — likely the whole Annelinn district, to the east of the city center.

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