When Paul arrived home from work last evening, he discovered a red fox pup sitting beneath the suet feeder. The pup let us both approach, but once we were within about 6 feet, s/he started moving away from us down the ravine. S/he didn't appear injured in any way, just lost. I threw out some pieces of apple since I coudn't think of anything else to do and Paul was able to take some pictures (I'll post the rest later).
We called the folks at Wildcare Inc and Jan ("the fox expert") called me back. She didn't seem too concerned since the pup was not injured and not in any immediate danger. We agreed that she would call back in about 2 hours for a status report. Paul and I headed out and played some tennis. When we returned we didn't see any sign of the pup, but when Jan called back, I looked out and saw it under the suet feeder.
At this point, I was getting quite worried about its welfare. Jan explained that sometimes pups wander away from the den, that it's not necessarily true that the mother was killed. She advised me to put out some water and dog food for it. Since its only natural predators are wolves and Great Horned Owls, we figured that it would be safe overnight.
I haven't spied the little one today. Hopefully its mother found it last night. Foxes are nocturnal hunters, so if the mother would find it, I would think that nighttime would be the best time for that. I was concerned that the pup might disturb the song sparrow nest, but thankfully that didn't occur. The nest of mother with 5 eggs is still intact.
Jan is going to phone back later today and I will post an update after speaking with her.
Posted by Elizabeth at April 20, 2004 03:21 PMthe fox is so cute!
Posted by: jenn at April 21, 2004 04:34 PM
