Was a fox really spotted queuing at cash machine in east London?

The photo went viral but all was not as it seemed

The fox was stuffed (Twitter/Martin Usborne)

Twitter users have been outfoxed by a photo appearing to show a streetwise fox queuing at a cash machine in east London.

Everyone seems blissfully unaware of the brazen animal apart from one woman warily holding her child outside the Hackney Community College in Hoxton.

Following stories of urban foxes in houses and shops, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that one would join the humans in an ATM queue, and Twitter users obligingly took the picture at face value.

Some newspapers were also deceived, with one speculating: “Maybe he’s sick of those raw chickens and has been inspired by the summer weather to buy a barbecue.”

But alas, this fox was stuffed. Photographer Martin Usborne hired the prop, reportedly from a taxidermy shop called Get Stuffed, and took it around Hoxton for a series of surrealist shots.

The foxy gentleman is seen perusing the aisles of a corner shop, in a stand-off with an elderly woman and her shopping trolley and enjoying the company of a group of ladies in a bar.

"I think it's fairly amusing that people took it seriously," he told the Independent.

"Foxes are such a big part of the everyday fabric, we almost take them for granted.

"I hired the fox and took him round east London for the day and ended up in a night club. Walking around town with a stuffed fox was an experience."

Mr Usborne is using the animal as the logo for his new publishing company, the Hoxton Mini Press, and revisiting the stuffed fox's adventures in a new book.

His pictures date back to 2006 and it is not clear why the cash point photo emerged last week.