Early in the week Brigitte Dade mentioned she had a family of fox living under the utility shed at the back of their lot. They live in a subdivision south of Smith Road and north of Roscoe Ewing Park. Their lot abuts the railroad track. We expressed an interest in seeing them and the Dades invited us to come over last Thursday morning between 9:00 & 9:30 which is when the kits come out to nurse and play. There is a male and female with 10 kits. They appear to be about 6-8 weeks old and as you can see from the photos, some larger than the others. I have only seen brief glimpses over the years driving back and forth to work and have never seen young ones in the wild. They were out and about for about 45 minutes and went back under the shed when it started to rain.
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Mom. We didn't see dad, but the Dades say he is around and integral in the care of the young ones.
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Breakfast time.........
Time to explore.
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Time to 'wrassle'!
How to get down?
You lookin' at me? That's a watermelon rind they were dragging around laying on the ground near the three kits by the shed. Apparently someone had gotten into the garbage somewhere in the neighborhood.
Tom said the shed reeks of urine and he is really unsure of the reaction he will get once mowing season begins.
This is so awesome!! For some reason I've always been enamored with foxes - maybe because they're so elusive or something. These are great pictures! Hopefully they'll be old enough to leave the 'den' before the mowing starts. They look pretty big!
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool way to spend a morning! I love seeing evidence of species adapting to our way of life. It is hopeful and inspiring. It must've been tough to not go out there and roll around with the cute little ones. They look so fluffy and cuddly... too bad the "reek of urine"!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! The photo of all of them nursing is really awesome. On the North Slope in Alaska they're one of the few animals you see active in the winter. I honestly don't understand how they are able to stay active and find food through the winter. Its cool to see them pounce through the snow while hunting.
ReplyDelete-Adam
So weird that you can see something like that in the city!!!
ReplyDeleteI saw last night this blogpost to Artemis and she gone crazy........She was "talking" or better making Grrrrrr noises to the foxes! I hope we will be able to see these little ones in our visit. She will be very happy with that!