In his spare time, a Russian miner takes stunning pictures of foxes

November 19, 2014 • 2:46 pm

Bored Panda, which I’m starting to realize is the most aptly named site on the Internet, tells the story of Ivan Kislov, who works as a miner in the remote Russian town of Magadan but spends his spare time photographing local wildlife, and has a special passion for foxes:

When he has time during his long shifts, he looks to photography for “relaxation from routine.” He likes to go on “hikes to inaccessible places, raftings,” or just simple walking tours to “observe the wildlife.”

Though he takes pictures of everything from bears and reindeer to wolves and stoats, Kislov says the foxes are often very willing models: “Foxes are curious and can come very close, and I shoot with wide angle and telephoto lenses.”

There are more pictures at Bored Panda, and a gazillion great ones on Kislov’s site, and another site called “500 px“. He also has a Facebook page (we’re now “friends”).

Here’s a selection of fox pix from Bored Panda:

 

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A fox and a rabbi walk into a bar. . . .

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And here’s Kislov himself:wild-foxes-ivan-kislov-3

h/t: Diana MacPherson

55 thoughts on “In his spare time, a Russian miner takes stunning pictures of foxes”

      1. Oh, certainly.

        I meant, “Why did we domesticate d*gs a dozen millennia or so ago?” Save for a few designer pets, foxes aren’t domesticated — and that’s only been the past few decades.

        b&

        1. Yeah, I wonder that myself. Why wolves & not foxes as foxes seem very tame.

          A family friend has almost patted the ones near him. His foxes steal things from people’s houses. He left treats out for the foxes in a can and one fox stole the whole can with the seeds. He had to wait until winter to follow the fox’s tracks so he could get his stuff back.

          1. As I understand it, wolves pretty much domesticated themselves. My guess is that fox “lifestyle” makes them less likely to hang around humans and therefore be less subject to selection for domestic life. Or something like that.

          2. “The fox: more than a mammal; it’s a lifestyle.” That should be the motto for foxes. 🙂

          4. Although foxes do very much hang around humans. There are substantial urban populations of foxes in many British cities and I guess that is true for other countries also. These foxes scavenge garbage bins and readily come and take food that is put out for them, often becoming quite tame. In more rural areas foxes have long had a bad reputation due to their propensity for sneaking into the chicken coop whenever the opportunity arises – “The fox went out on a chilly night…”

    2. Wolves domesticated themselves more easily than cats because they are used to social living. Neither cats nor foxes are particularly social animals in nature, so they didn’t fit into human living arrangements as well. Cats have learned to be social, and foxes can be bred to be social, but dogs are naturally social hunters and have been able to join in with people and help improve hunting success rates.

  2. foxes – probably the most misunderstood wild animal in Britain. D*gs are far more dangerous. But get no where near the same amount of bad press.

    1. Foxes are considered dangerous in Britain?

      In the US, the only places I’ve heard of them being considered dangerous are places with serious rabies outbreaks, like Alaska’s North Slope (seriously, the workers actually have safety meetings about the dangers of rabid foxes there).

    2. Yeah, since you don’t have rabies in Britain how can foxes be dangerous at all? Hell, in Britain you can just pick up any wild creature and just pet it! ;-)Seriously though, what kind of bad press do foxes get? They are so cute. Especially when they have their black silk stockings on.

      1. Foxes are given a bad press by those who want to chase them with dogs in the name of ‘sport’.

        1. Silly silly me. Transfixed by the beauty of the little foxes, I completely forgot about that crap. ‘Ooh, bloodsport! We are King Alfred! Ooh!’ My sympathies on living on such a beautiful island with such idiots.

  4. Ivan (how fitting!) is another example of a regular Russian citizen, the ones we used to call the “cold war enemies” that the west viewed as monsters but who are, for the most part, just ordinary folks like us…
    Thanks, Ivan, for the photos. They’re great!

    1. Well of course Russians are ordinary people. Who believed all that BS propaganda from the Cold War anyway (rhetorical question)?

        1. Probably correct. However, I find that comforting because at least they aren’t the regular people (at least not how I think of regular Americans anyway but maybe I’m deluded.)

          1. America is rather schizophrenic. In large swaths of the country, they are the regular people. And everywhere they’re not uncommon.

            Of course, the reverse is also true….

            b&

          2. Maybe he is a socialist, just a really crappy one:
            – rescued the capitalist system post-GFC
            – Dow Jones at record highs
            – Billionaires pay less tax than middle-incomers
            – Wealth inequality increasing..

          3. I’m not sure if ignorant or insane is the better term – most of those people seem to have no real conception of what socialism actually is, and they tend to be in favor of a number of our socialist programs like Medicare, Social Security and various welfare programs (at least, the ones THEY use, not the ones those lazy brown – I mean “urban” – people are taking advantage of).

            Maybe the right word is inane rather than insane?

  6. I particularly like the one with the squirrels/groundhogs/? in it. I like both species — and one of them might eat the other. Cool.

    1. Oh yeah I meant to mention that one. The poor ground hogs (are they ground hogs? Are their ground hogs in the arctic? They look like ground hogs) are distracted yucking it up & looking at the camera while a fox is right there, perhaps plotting to eat them.

  8. What spectacular photos! I’d love to have the whole gallery hanging on my walls.

    I love the smiling one; and of course the cubs. I had no idea they ever had litters that large.

  14. How fortunate to live somewhere so beautiful, even if he has to spend long periods underground to earn a living…

    1. He also lives in Magadan which is mostly tundra. I’m always surprised when I hear people live in the tundra. It looks like the population there is about what it is in Canada for the high arctic.

      1. Is it tundra? I remember a lot of hills and trees. Granted, the trees are mostly larch (and so look decidedly pathetic during the winter), and I didn’t get to explore much outside the city proper (which is right down on the coast).

  15. Wow! Just…yeah. Wow! I am at a loss for words. The photo quality in itself is enough to be admired; adding in these truly stunning mammals transforms the series into art.

    By the way, what does the fox say?
    (heidi heidi heidi ho?)

  19. Absolutely gorgeous! Hats off to Ivan. Makes me want to buy a good camera and lenses, and a plane ticket to Magadan.

    Or Kamchatka. That’s high on my list. There is a Russian man, a biologist or ecologist if I recall correctly, who regularly visits Kamchatka during the course of his work, and he also takes many stunning pictures, many of foxes. He sometimes takes his cat with him and once got some pics of his cat facing off with a fox!

  22. Foxes have a very very strong urine scent, when they mark their territory, and they do, a lot, you cn smell it a mile away, for that reason alone you don’t want one in your house, they also chew everything and anything. While perfectly beautiful, not a pet.

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