Three red foxes are fighting for the rights to eat.
A young female has a special reason to fill her stomach.
Should she venture into battle?
Her fellow foxes aren't the only ones making life hard for her right now.
The largest distribution range of any land mammal except humans has this one:
The red fox.
It's not an endangered species,
but that doesn't mean life is easy for a fox,
nor is it very long.
In a quiet forest in Spain, a young female raids her stores.
A month ago, she buried the leg bone of a small fallow deer in this spot.
A male smells it too. He observes...
...letting her do the hard work.
Here, in the mountains of Spain, food is scarce in winter.
One bite and the thief is upon her.
The meagre bone isn't worth fighting for.
The lone young female has more than just herself to worry about.
She's pregnant.
Generally, red foxes take only one mate.
She has lost hers.
Now there is no one to help raise her pups.
The young female is an itinerant, without a fixed territory.
She'll travel hundreds of miles to find food and a place to raise her cubs.
Red foxes are omnivores,
meaning she will easily adapt to different environments and eat whatever's on offer.
She forages for worms and snails along the edge of a river.
Rabbits are one of foxes' favorite foods.
This one would satisfy her and her unborn pups for days.
But her appetite quickly evaporates.
A deadly predator is stalking.
It's best that the rare Iberian lynx eats rabbit today
because lynxes also like the taste of fox.
A full stomach will keep the cat content
and give the little fox time to slip quietly away.
Another predator sees the lucky escape.
The golden eagle.
In open terrain, it can spot a fox from more than 3 miles away.
The golden eagle can live for over 30 years in the wild.
Red foxes may only survive for 2 or 3 years
before they succumb to disease or predators like the eagle.
But they do have defenses.
Exceptional hearing alerts the female to the eagles's ominous presence.
Safe from the threat above,
the pregnant young fox shifts her attention to an unmistakable odor.
The carcass of a red deer.
But it's already being devoured by two red foxes.
If she wants to join this feast, she must first submit to the male,
using her body language to communicate.
She grins, brings and lowers herself to the ground,
but it's his mate who decides who dines here.
The attack looks brutal.
Five percent of foxes die in battles like this.
She's had enough.
There are other lives to consider.
Another lost opportunity.
It's been two days since she's had a decent meal.
But out in the fields change is happening.
Winter is over.
Rabbits have come to eat succulent new leaves.
Contrary to popular belief, wild rabbits don't breed like rabbits.
They only have young when there's enough food around, like now.
Good news for the ravenous female fox.
One rabbit will save her and her unborn cubs,
and this time there's no lynx to stop her.
Two months after she made it, she built a den in the sand
and gave birth to 3 cubs.
Fed them and kept them safe.
And now they're almost independent.
Next winter, they'll be ready to have cubs of their own.
For a wild red fox, life is tough, dangerous and far too short.
But still, there can be moments when it all makes sense.
Want to see more foxes or Spain's wildlife?
Check out our foxes playlist and the video about the Iberian lynx
and its amazing comeback story.