Red Fox (Renard roux)

     Knowing that our interest in wildlife extends beyond birds, Miriam's niece, Kathy, let us know that she had seen a den of a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) with growing healthy kits, and thought we might be interested to pay it a visit. And of course we were very interested!
     Ornithology is my principal passion, first, foremost and always, but there is not a single aspect of the natural world that does not fascinate me, and this encounter with the foxes is about as good as it gets.
     In recent times, foxes have been able to adapt to urban environments, and this female denned in the village of St. Jacobs, on a hill leaving town.
     Here you can see a panoramic view of the location with the four kits outside practicing the skills they will need for life as adults.

     And here is a closer shot of three of the kits.

     One of the adults payed a brief visit, but left to go hunting. Four hungry mouths demand a regular supply of food!

     To say that these young foxes are charming is the understatement of the week!

     They were constantly exploring their environment, sniffing the air, listening for new sounds, practicing that classic fox jump as it hunts for rodents in winter snow.

     I am quite convinced that part of their rambunctiousness is pure play, but there is a serious side to it also, and even at this young age dominance hierarchies start to be established.

     They are ever curious, with knowledge gained at this early stage in their lives filed away in their memory bank for the future, when they will need to survive on their own, and raise a family too.

     There are those who say that one should always view wildlife in a detached manner, with a scientific eye, dispassionate and objective, without emotion. This is pure bunk, I say. If your reaction to these wonderful creatures is not that they are adorable, I think you need to check whether you have a pulse!

     In the area where we live there has been a population explosion over several years of Eastern Cottontails (Sylvilagus floridanus), helped in large measure by mild winters, and it is a real challenge to gardeners who routinely find new growth nibbled back to the ground. Quite often we see one or two rabbits in our backyard, and soon the adults will be joined by their young. If you have a vegetable garden better protect it well with chicken wire, but flowers are not immune and we lost all of our coneflowers a couple of years ago.

Eastern Cottontail

     The principal reason that the rabbits have become so numerous is that their normal exposure to predators has declined markedly in recent years. Everyone is familiar with the legendary fecundity of rabbits; an expansion of urban foxes would serve to rectify this imbalance.

     Foxes have been persecuted by humans in more ways than one can imagine. They have been trapped, poisoned, hunted from snowmobiles, run to exhaustion by hounds, and even burned at the stake. Furthermore they have been introduced into countries where they do not belong, Australia being a classic case, where they become a danger to native wildlife. Surely the time has come, when we can finally accept the Red Fox as a natural part of our environment. It belongs here, it is native to the area and subject to all the normal checks and balances that are an integral part of a healthy ecosystem.

     Let me leave you with a final picture to make your day just a little brighter.

     Some of the youngsters will not survive to adulthood. For those that do let us welcome them into our lives and accept the incredible privilege it is to share our world with these creatures. They are after all much like us, trying to feed the kids and get through the day!