34 thoughts on “Close encounter of the vulpine kind”

    1. My guess is that it smells the beef paste (or similar) smeared on the lens’ sunshade.
      But I’m a cynic. Who has tried that trick before and not had it work.

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  13. They’re just naturally curious. Look at how the neck is stretched but the legs are under the body – just in case a quick get-a-way is needed.

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  14. Probably that fox smells the turkey sandwich that the photographer held in his hands prior to putting the lens on the camera.

    Hunger in winter will often motivate wild animals to become bolder and take more risks in their search for food.

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  19. Red fox in the snow – wow. However, unless there has been some impressive habituating going on my guess is that is a (semi) tame individual. Is that a hint of a collar beneath the thick ruff of fur? That doesn’t, of course, detract from the beauty of the photo.

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    1. Close. The fox says: “You got a mighty D800 with the 70-200 f/2.8G AF-S VR and still shoot basic JPEG? And VR not engaged? And wide open? What about vignetting and corner sharpness? Wanna give Bjørn Rørslett a fit or something?”

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  21. Not to rain on the parade but as someone who just went through a series of rabies shots because I was bitten by a cat (probably not a stray but I couldn’t be sure it had been vaccinated) it has to be noted that one symtom of rabies is where wild animals appear tame and seem to have no fear of humans. If a wild fox came up to me that way, I’d be scared as hell.

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    1. I worked in the arctic for awhile. I had a fox attack my snowmobile as I drove by. After t attacked another machine we shot I and sen it in for autopsy. The poor thing was on its last breath due to rabies.

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      1. Foxes are a notorious vector for rabies. I think it was in Quebec where bait laced with rabies vaccine was widely airdropped to reduce the incidence of the disease among the wild foxes there.

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  24. That is a beautiful animal. Here is the background to the picture.

    Dan Dinu is the photographer in the photo. Here is a link to his Face Book page, Povestea fotografiei. You might need to login to see it. The accompanying comment is in Romanian. Google translator provides this,

    This weekend we took a walk over to St. Anne and I had a more than pleasant surprise. I met a fox being very cooperative with the camera as you can see :). He was raised by a forester in the area, and now made ​​his hut besides age. It is interesting that although it is common with people close unless it is large groups of tourists fidgetiness and avoid noisy or crowded areas.

    We recommend that even in these cases, if you encounter wild animals that behave in this way, do not give them food in hand and try to keep a distance from them. Besides being can react strangely, we have to learn that one can be a threat for them. The fox was pretty hard to do that, because at one point I stood still and she came near me, but at the same time not close to other tourists who may not have been like :).

    So to get to Saint Ann, I saw four foxes field place within a radius of a few hundred meters. I thought at the time that the state is a good area on the prowl, but after experineta the fox in the picture, I think no other truly wild specimen not let me photograph him with wide angle. All well and will soon show and other images.

    If you view his photos, which there are some nice ones, you’ll notice a felid that he has either rescued or taken hiking with him. If only I could read Romanian!
    Dan’s moggy

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