We haven’t seen our fox family in several weeks. They may be gone for good.
I am pretty sure their den was down in the woods on the other side of Wildlife Trail, not far from our house. Wildlife Trail runs down the side of our property for a couple of hundred yards to a dead end. The foxes always seem to have come from that direction, and to have run in that direction when spooked. A couple of years ago I saw some fox kits at the edge of the road down there, and I have also heard fox calls coming from that direction. So, I think that’s where the den was.
A couple of weeks ago the county started resurfacing the road. There were deep gullies where the old pavement had washed away over the years. It was so bad that almost no one ever drove down the road. It was a good place for a fox den. But the owner of some property at the dead end has decided to build a house, and he complained enough to the county that they came out to fix the problem.
For almost two weeks the county ran heavy equipment up and down Wildlife Trail all day long. They had graders, backhoes, loaders, dump trucks, rollers, compactors, and tar tankers, not to mention a lot of people. I think the commotion convinced the foxes to move.
I’m also sorry to say that one of our foxes is probably dead. A neighbor up the hill from us told us that he had his son shoot what he thought was a coyote that had been eating cat and dog food at his house. So his son shot what turned out to be a fox.
The resurfacing has been finished since last week, and we have seen no sign of the foxes. Zeke isn’t barking into the dark, and the cat food bowls Leah puts out in the driveway haven’t been licked clean like the foxes used to do. I think they’re gone now, and I’m not sure how I feel about that.
Shoot before you look; sounds pretty typical, unfortunately. The (remaining) foxes may have moved on if you haven’t seen them in a while. I saw one run in front of my car last evening when I was returning from the grocery store; I suppose I see them that way 3-4 times each year. Our fox population fluctuates a lot, and when the population is high we often see mangy foxes. I feel so sorry for them because they’re (1) miserable and (2) doomed–more evidence that’s there’s no benevolent God, because a benevolent God would never create a torturous pestilence like mange.
I thought that the fox population here might suffer when the coyotes colonized a few years ago, but the foxes seem to be holding their own and even prospering.
I’m pretty sure they’re gone. I assume the one that was shot was a member of the family.
I saw coyotes around here long before I saw the first fox. I had the impression that they wouldn’t share a range, but apparently they’re making it work.
I was going to comment here yesterday, but I was so mad at your neighbors for shooting the fox, I just couldn’t write anything. I’m pretty sure there are better ways to handle unwanted animals. We haven’t seen any foxes here this year, but the first three years we were here, we saw them a couple of times. I’m beginning to think it is better not to see any wild animals. Much safer for them.
Robin – Yes. I have to take that kind of behavior without saying anything because that’s just the way it is around here. And I agree about not seeing wild animals. That was the exact argument I had with myself about having them around the house. I’m afraid the foxes got used to being around humans and eating cat food, so they thought they could do it anywhere. But they can’t.