Today we have two sets of photos taken by readers. The first is from Jon, whose pictures come from Northern Canada:
These pictures are from a chance encounter of young fox pups outside of their den. Their home was dug into the side of a sand hill that we stumbled upon by accident. The pups played in the setting sun for about an hour for us and it was magical.
These photos come from reader Derek in Colorado:
Here are a couple of fox pictures from my backyard in suburban Denver. I wish there was a happier story to accompany these photos, but unfortunately this is a sad one.
When I first moved into the house, there were several foxes that would loiter around my house. Sometimes they would dig in the garden with me (see last picture), and sometimes they would hang out underneath the neighbors laundry exhaust.
They were not the prettiest foxes as they had mangey tails, but it was very fun to have visitors. I assumed the previous owners or someone nearby had been feeding them and they got comfortable around humans.
One day they stopped showing up though. I never figured out why until very recently when talking with a neighbor who read that some sort of fungus wiped out a large percentage of the local foxes.
I haven’t seen any foxes in a couple years, but hopefully their number will rebound and I will have garden helpers once again.
Those teenagers in the sunlight are some good looking kits!
Sad to hear about the foxes in Denver. Here’s hoping the local wildlife management people can being back and maintain an healthy population — and that residents will support them in such an effort.
b&
Amazing photos!
Ditto!
Here’s video of a gagging fox who appeared in my backyard last June. Still don’t know what s/he was reacting to:
http://youtu.be/ihRq8ifxS6U
Maybe Deepak or one of his ilk was around, causing the gag response
Poor foxes have a lot against them. The ones up north in Canada have human hunters (always from the cities who go on trips up north to shoot anything) to avoid and foxes being foxes, they often run and then stop to look back which gives hunters the chance to kill them.
As with lions, I am utterly unimpressed with “hunters” who hunt foxes. There is no good reason to do so, a great many reasons not to do so, and nothing meaningful to show in the kill. You really want to impress me with your skill at tracking and approaching foxes? Take the shot with a wide-angle lens on your camera, not with a bullet or bow or trap or dog.
Once upon a time, especially when predators were a direct threat to human life and limb and livelihood, there were situations where such an hunt could be justifiable. But those days are so far in the ancient and distant past, and we’ve gone so far overboard with hyperbolic overreaction and caused such devastation as a result…that I think it’s entirely safe to say that non-sustenance, non-maintenance hunting is as barbaric as human sacrifice.
Yes, there are people for whom game is an essential source of food. They’re not the problem.
And there are are prey species where the only predators left are humans. They need to be hunted — and should, ideally, be hunted exclusively by those who will eat the prey and make good use of the bits they don’t eat. Even better, we should be reintroducing predators into the mix in those situations.
But there’s never an excuse in the modern world to kill predators. You’re not going to eat them, and their populations don’t need to be thinned. Even in cases where predators habitually attack livestock, the proper answer is trapping and relocation, with ample compensation to the ranchers and ready and rapid assistance in relocating suspect predators.
Cheers,
b&
I don’t even consider what these people do to the foxes as hunting. Right now it is deer season, but these guys who are going up north shoot anything that moves for the sick thrill of it. It’s terrible for them to kill such lovely creatures like those foxes!
That is really terrible about the people shooting foxes for “fun”. I respect life too much to condone that outlook. When animals are killed it should be with respect.
I made the mistake a couple days ago of looking at the next-offered video on youtube after having watched the two lynxes at nite. The video was of a father and son trapping lynxes in Alaska. The attitude of the son (teenager) in front of the camera was not at all respectful. Not surprisingly, comments were disabled.
At the risk of being a Debbie Downer, in my humble opinion it’s not wise to feed predatory animals like foxes, raccoons, coyotes, skunks, etc. They become dependent and often troublesome, if not to you then to your neighbor. I make an exception for feeding birds. Even Jerry’s squirrels get a pass, if it’s kept in proportion.
Stephen, I think you are right in mentioning this.
Raccoons, for example, were historically not as common as they have been in the past 100 or so years. If I am not mistaken, predation by raccoons is one major reason why eastern box turtles are endangered in the state of Michigan.
Even feeding deer is not good, as chronic wasting disease can be transmitted between deer when they come in close contact at bait stations.
Yep that’s an Australian Wedge Tailed eagle carrying a fox