Red fox dispersal question

L

Lance H

New member
Alright, you red fox rebels, here's one for ya...

Locally, we're having an abundance of red fox sightings in broad daylight, usually around the 11 am to 2 pm time of the day. I've observed three in the past week alone. Folks are concerned that they might be sick, thus accounting for their odd diurnal behavior. I'm of another mind. All three have appeared to be quite healthy. Body condition/ muscle tone looks good, starting to get their winter coats in, and again, they look good. No unusual behavior. The one today was on the somewhat smallish size but readily perked up to a soft voice squeal. The police told me they see hordes of them at night, and the veterenarian across the street from the one I watched this morning says that the weather has prompted a huge outbreak of fleas in the past 7-10 days. She was concerned about mange, but I told her they all look good, hair-wise. I went further to say that I saw this behavior as a result of two factors. First, with the recent flea outbreak, their dens/ beds may be so infested as to be causing them a great deal of discomfort and forcing them out of their regular hidey holes. Along that same line, the foxes themslves appear to be quite infested as the one I watched this morning would push along with her head sideways on the ground to scratch what was itchin' her. Second, I told her that the sudden appearance of all these foxes may be secondary to the young of the year recently being dispersed by their parents and if there are as many as the PD says they see at night, finding a place to call "home" may be something of a problem right now. Furthermore, we're seeing a good increase in the overall number of coyotes around here this year and I think a lot opf reds that had dispersed and established territories beyond the outskirts of town are being forced into the safer havens of the city by encroaching coyotes, thus accounting for some of the increase. (Pure speculation.)In any event, I saw nothing to indicate that any of them were sick, at least not in such a way as to be a public safety concern. Any of you guys in fox-rich country have anything else to offer?
 
When I lived in MD there were a lot of reds and gray fox. The reds were always out in the daytime but the grays only came out at night. Same thing with calling them. If you called in the day, you got only reds. If you called at night, only grays. There was an occasional exception but rarely.

Jack
 
Thanks, Jack. I've seen three more (same ones, additional sightings) since making that post the other day. Locals rarely see the reds in town and few are out running around after dark when the critters come out to play. But, the police and animal control are besieged with reports of "sick foxes" and I have assured them that the ones I've observed are healthy animals, just hungry and lonely, and that as sad as it seems, the dispersal process separates the wheat from the chaff in fox-dom and that these young'uns are now faced with the challenge of making it on their own, or die. It's hard for them (and me to some degree) to witness natural selection to this magnitude in our own front yards, but that's the real world and it's better that we do not interfere. On a related note, it's our sincere hope that this many hungry juvenile foxes running about day and night may serendipitously handle the problem of stray cats in town that the city refuses to handle for us.
 
Lance H.
Are these fox in "huntable" habitat or are they within the city limits? I'm hoping for you they're within a hunting area. To be honest, my finger was twitching at the idea of so many fox. If so, enjoy because I promise it won't stay like that long. Predator population dynamics are very interesting but one thing is for sure, they're numbers go way down rapidly if capacity has been exceeded.
 
Mike, No. Presently, they're in town. I saw the one on my mail route today, just sunning on these ppl's front lawn watching cars go by. In her case, she's about two blocks from the edge of town. She lives in the storm sewers. Now, if you promise not to tell anyone, I will say that come Christmas time or so, I usually hit a couple plces off the edge of town and thin them out, just enough to keep them healthy, but always try to leave several so people can watch "our foxes".
 
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