# Clever Foxes
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 1, 2014, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797 "2014-06-01T23:31:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/21 "2014-06-02T19:57:47Z")
I can tell you that if you bathe a flea infested cat, all the fleas absolutely will run to its head to avoid the water. I learned to soap up a ring around their necks before soaking the rest of of them. So I think the trick could feasibly work, but that doesn’t address whether foxes actually know how to take advantage of it.
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### Author:  [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/22 "2014-06-02T20:34:02Z")
> [@Leonard](#):
>
> I can tell you that if you bathe a flea infested cat, all the fleas absolutely will run to its head to avoid the water. I learned to soap up a ring around their necks before soaking the rest of of them. So I think the trick could feasibly work, but that doesn’t address whether foxes actually know how to take advantage of it.
I’ve noticed this bathing dogs before, but I thought they ran up to escape the soap, because water alone does nothing to them. ?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/23 "2014-06-02T22:04:55Z")
> [@Musicat](#):
>
> It’s a stupid question that doesn’t belong in this forum, and you know it.
**Moderator Warning**
Your post was against General Questions rules, and you know it. And the place to complain about moderation is in ATMB. This is an official warning for being a jerk. Keep this kind of stuff out of this forum.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
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### Author:  [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/24 "2014-06-02T23:13:52Z")
You can find this story, together with several others about the cleverness of foxes, in Olaus Magnus’ _Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus_, printed in 1555. So it has been around in Europe for quite a while.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/25 "2014-06-03T00:48:57Z")
It’s an interesting antique fable but it wouldn’t work in reality. First, undercoat doesn’t get wet even if the top coat is, especially merely by swimming. Purple Clogs is right, it’s the soap lathered down to the skin that they are fleeing. Second, almost all the fleas are going to be in the nest/den/bed, not on the fox. Rolling in dust might be more effective.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Duality](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Duality)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/26 "2014-06-03T02:15:27Z")
You may be interested in knowing that the Sioux name for a fox translates to “lousy one”.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2014, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/27 "2014-06-03T09:58:53Z")
I still don’t understand why the fox wouldn’t just dunk its whole body under. Why provide a floating flea island refuge?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2014, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/28 "2014-06-03T10:50:28Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> I still don’t understand why the fox wouldn’t just dunk its whole body under. Why provide a floating flea island refuge?
I think the (false) notion is that the fleas will crawl from a wet place to a dry one, but won’t just abandon ship if it’s all getting wet.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2014, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/clever-foxes/689797/29 "2014-06-03T16:23:40Z")
> [@Mr.Duality](#):
>
> You may be interested in knowing that the Sioux name for a fox translates to “lousy one”.
Is there a reason for that or is just a coincidence or something?
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