Reader Stephen Oberski sent me some gorgeous pictures of foxes, along with a description of an interesting fox haven. (Note: the photos are very large and hi-res, so click to enlarge if you want.) Readers have obliged me by sending in more photos and videos of foxes, so I may be able to fill a full week. (They are all, by the way, the red fox, Vulpes vulpes.)
Back in April and May of this year I had occasion to photograph fox cubs in the Oakville, Ontario (just to the west of Toronto) area. There were approximately 10 to 15 of them plus the mother; they were so active it was impossible to get an accurate count.
They were born and lived on the east bank of 14 Mile Creek not far from where it terminates in Lake Ontario, we live a bit further upstream and our yard backs onto it.
I suspect that there were at least two litters born a week or so apart, based on the differences in size and colour and the information from Wikipedia that the typical litter size for the red fox is 4 to 6 (though it has been reported to be as high as 13).
Apparently the foxes had been using this area as a nursery for quite a while, for the entire area was a maze of tunnels and you never knew from where a cub might appear. This probably explained the mystery mounds of dirt I had encountered on the adjacent sidewalk on prior runs though the area—before I knew about the cubs.
I believe that the cub below is eating a rabbit, which looks like the well-chewed-on remains of a foot and some attachment bones The mother also brought them red winged blackbirds and there was also what I think were the remains of a sea gull and many other anonymous bones and feathers scattered around the nursery. I think there was some cannibalism going on as well: I saw what were probably the remains of another cub.
Although the watershed around the creek is fairly undeveloped, it runs right though some densely populated urban areas of Oakville and unfortunately the foxes quickly become habituated to humans with the expected tragic results for some of the foxes.
As much as I enjoyed being around and photographing them, I eventually had to stop as I did not want to have them get more used to humans than necessary.
For those of a photographic bent, the camera was the original Canon Digital Rebel—the first digital SLR released by Canon for the consumer market. For the time, it had an amazing 6.3 megapixel resolution. The lens is the Canon F4 EF 70-200 mm IS L series. I’ve had the camera for over 10 years and I have promised myself that when it dies I will upgrade; but at last count I have taken around 100,000 pictures with it and it still refuses to die.
Stephen’s photo site has a bunch more pictures of the mothers and cub; click on them for very high-res images.
That picture of the kit yawning is really adorable!
I know the area somewhat as I worked in Oakville for many years and I had that camera for ages as well. My dad is now using it and the only reason I’ve upgraded my cameras is to get faster fps for bird photography.
I, too, started with that camera. Mom has it now, though she finds the iPhone more convenient for what she does…mostly, snapshots to help her remember a scene that she then paints.
And, again — cute kits! I imagine that Russian company that’s breeding pet foxes must be hugely profitable.
b&
I remember a guy in a parking lot coming up to me with his family when I first got that camera. He asked me if it was the digital Rebel and wanted to hold it. 🙂 It was really the first affordable digital SLR and it got noticed when you went out with it.
It went beyond merely being the first affordable digital SLR…it was the first affordable digital camera that wasn’t a toy and / or gimmick. It was no different from a film camera, except it had a digital sensor in place of the film.
Also impressive is that it’s still a damned good camera, with better image quality than any cellphone and the overwhelming majority of point-and-shoot cameras. And it at least holds its own against 135-format film and smaller.
Yeah, it’s at the bottom of the heap of DSLRs today…but it was, in so many very significant ways, the first….
Cheers,
b&
Great pictures! I very much enjoy foxes, and frequently come upon one or sometimes a pair when walking my dog late in the evening at my summer place in Maryland.
Urban adapters par excellence, the commonest cause of death for urban foxes are roads and in some places, d*gs. Urban foxes in the UK have learnt to avoid roads at the time of highest traffic, but when the young disperse in autumn the roadkill can be high. Zurich has a thriving population of urban foxes right into the heart of the city, as had London, Bristol, and several Australian cities. Discarded takeaways are a major source of food. Love foxes.
Steve, I think I must live about a mile East of you, just W of 4th Line/Nottinghill Gate and N of the QEW ( which Apple Maps pronounces Cue:-). We had a mother fox and 4 or 5 kits in the ravine just over our fence last May, visible for a week or so. We got some pics, including a nursing one, but they were nowhere near as good as yours.
Our neighbor has seen foxes walking right down the middle of our street in broad daylight ( we’ve seen coyotes there, too, as well as in the ravines.). This is why Freddie is an indoor Pusser. We lost two of his predecessors to those jaws…We’ve had way too much development north of us and it’s driven the poor critters too close to houses.
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Very nice photos.
Oh, they are not adorable. A fox killed one of my chickens last night. Latte was a beautiful chicken, a Sussex with gorgeous colouring and a really nice nature.
Damn chicken killing vermin. They are quite beautiful but I curse the idiot that brought them to Australia.
I know how you feel about Oz foxes. Of course it’s entirely possible to feel delighted and happy to see live foxes in the UK and the US and pleased to see dead ones in Australia.
Wonderful photos, Stephen. What a privilege it must have been to see these cubs!
…er…kits….
Having just watched the News Hour on Maryland Public Television, I had left the channel unchanged and found myself watching Outdoors Maryland, which featured a nice documentary on foxes, covering, among other things, how the mother fox hides food for her pups further and further from the den. From this, they learn how to forage. There is a Outdoors Maryland web site where past programs can be viewed, but it doesn’t appear that the fox video has yet been posted.