The tiny cub, which had its eyes still closed, was found at the bottom of a garden in Meadowlands Avenue, Hampden Park.

The homeowner phoned East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS) for advice and Trevor Weeks, founder of WRAS, drove from his home in Uckfield to help out.

"As a general rule if you find any fox cubs or any baby wildlife hidden in bushes or in long grass, you should leave them well alone as mum will usually be nearby and keeping an eye from a distance," said Trevor.

"Foxes will move their litter from one den to another if they are disturbed or if the den becomes too cramped.

"However, this is no easy task — she will have to pick them up one at a time. This move can be quite far and quite difficult, so mum will occasionally leave her young hidden at a halfway point and then go and get the next one until all her young are at the halfway point, then start the process all over again moving them one at a time to the next stop or to the final den.

"However, mum may have been killed or a cat could have picked up or injured the cub, so we don't mind checking them out just in case we can get them back to their mums."

On Trevor's arrival he wrapped the cub up and assessed its condition.

The cub was warm, had a full stomach and showed no signs of having being picked up by a cat.

"It was a little unusual where the cub was found, but it looked very much like a cub which had been left for mum to come back and collect.

"So after seeking a second opinion from the Fox Project based at Tunbridge Wells, we decided to give it a try and get it back to its mum," said Trevor.

A cub this young is likely to need feeds every three to four hours, so Trevor knew that if mum did not come back and collect her young son within two hours they would have no choice but to bring him in for hand rearing.

"I placed a warm towel and a hot water bottle in the bottom of one of my wire cages and placed the cub wrapped up nice and warm.

"There is no way the cub could climb out and he was wrapped up and snuggled in the towel. Rescuers kept a watch from the house and at about 8.40pm the cub disappeared from the cage.

"It was not easy to see the bottom of the garden in the dark, but if a cat had taken the cub we would have heard the noise, whereas the vixen is nice and quiet about it."

Every year WRAS gets called to about 15 fox cubs found in gardens.

Last year out of the five which were not injured or ill, four were returned to their parents.

Trevor said, "The really small babies like this can only be given a very short period of time as they need a feed so often.

"We knew that if mum was going to take her son, she would do so quickly or not at all."