I have mentioned before that we have foxes around the neighborhood, some of which regularly visit our driveway to poop and eat catfood*. I recently saw more of the family. This was about halfway down Lavender Trail from our house to the driveway of our new property.
This fox kit watched me and the dogs approach for a while, but dived into the brush before we got close. The image is fuzzy because I took it with my phone from a good distance, and the phone camera has a wide angle lens. The scale is not obvious here, but the kit is quite small. I think it would fit into two hands cupped together, with maybe a little overflow.
About two weeks ago I saw two fox kits. This time I saw only one. I’m pretty sure the den is somewhere in a thick patch of kudzu that grows beside the road. There is an obvious path through the kudzu leading into the darkness beneath the growth.
On Monday morning as I walked the dogs I looked into the path and saw this.
It’s the skin and the tail of an armadillo. The picture is fuzzy not because of distance but because I was holding the phone at arm’s length and wasn’t as steady as I might have been. It was also dark down there.
It was gone when Leah and I walked the dogs Monday evening.
I assume that the mother fox brought it either to feed one or more kits or to eat at her leisure. I don’t know how the fox came to have the armadillo. I would have thought an adult armadillo would be too large to be fox prey. Maybe the fox found one killed by a car, or maybe it found the remains of one that a coyote had killed.
* Edited to clarify exactly what the fox eats. Thanks, Scott.
Better edit that first line, Mark. I don’t think foxes are coprophagous!
We’ve got a surfeit of foxes (and fox kits) this year. I attribute it to the fact that the coyote population has crashed (because of mange?). When the coyote population recovers, the foxes will suffer. Until then, it’s nice to see them in abundance (though I’m not sure our Wild Turkey poults agree) .
Good to see the foxes find more to eat than the catfood!
Scott — Hmm, I guess you’re right about the ambiguity there.
I found a bunch of feathers a week or so ago while I was walking the dogs. I couldn’t tell for sure that it was a turkey, but based on the number of feathers, it must have been. Again, I don’t know whether the bird was killed by a predator or a car, but I’m pretty sure an animal ate the body.
Robin — Yes. I wish they would find even more of their natural food.