Wild Kingdom

The Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)


Here's the mama...

...and three of her six kits.

They've set up house - burrowed a den - below our deck. Needless to say, we're very popular with our pet-loving neighbors. Our red state is very pro-environment; not a single government agency
will relocate the adorable vulpes vulpes. (Don't ask how much it costs for a private sector company to do it.)

A few facts, courtesy of http://www.ozfoxes.com/aafoxes.htm:

• A fox can hit 35mph running flat out.
• Since it is the vixen who decides where she will raise her next family, it is not uncommon for one of the daughters to return home if Momma is gone, continuing the cycle in a familiar environment.
• Foxes will defend their homes if they have kits and if a child is too persistent in hanging around the den. (My personal favorite, especially since we just purchased a swing set.)

We have a theory that the previous owners of our lovely home played host in the past. One of the fence pickets is sawed off at the bottom, as if to encourage the migration of kits. Problem is, the vixen wants to lead the kits over the fence on the opposite side of the yard. Also, we can't find any excavated dirt. The fox holes don't appear to be new... they were just hidden under rocks and landscaping cloth.

Update: The foxes are gone! We tried a combination of mothballs and loudness. When we saw the vixen in the yard, we'd open windows and say "scram" or "shoo" and Rob went out into the yard. She got the message!