A fox went out on a chilly night, and five kits followed her, tumbling out from their burrow and scampering up a wooded hill. She stood on full alert as she nursed them, and shook them off before they were ready to release her. Over the next hour or so, as the youngsters played, she and her mate brought back two fresh food offerings: some small creature that was immediately ripped into shreds by a parent and swarmed by the kits, and a vole that was heavily mouthed by a parent then obscured beneath leaves. There was also evidence of a previous meal, as several kits paraded around bearing large white tufts of fur.
It’s fairly common to see fox kits this time of year, although I’ve never had the privilege to see so much family interaction. This chance came through a friend who has hosted generations of foxes under a shed in a town setting; for good or ill, the parents have acclimated to living in close quarters to human activity. As for the kits, they’re at that weaning stage where they’re up from the den but still have their dark baby fuzz and haven’t yet learned to be shy. The kits came within a few feet of us, and I’ve seen similar behavior in much more remote settings; I can see why people occasionally mistake them for lost puppies.
We have a number of foxy features in our on-line archive; here’s an article by Meghan McCarthy McPhaul describing vulpine family life, and an excerpt from a tracking book by author David Brown. If you do see fox kits, red or gray, count yourself lucky. It’s a fleeting moment; they’ll soon realize they’re wild animals and vanish into the woods.
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