{"id":1016,"date":"2008-10-20T11:58:05","date_gmt":"2008-10-20T15:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2008-10-27T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2008-10-27T14:41:23","slug":"red-fox-wild-life-on-the-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/?p=1016","title":{"rendered":"Red Fox: Wildlife on the Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

As humans expand development and\u00c2\u00a0invade the few remaining slices of\u00c2\u00a0natural habitat in coastal New\u00c2\u00a0England,\u00c2\u00a0wild creatures are increasingly forced to survive\u00c2\u00a0on the edge of civilization, spilling over into once wild, now “domesticated” lands.\u00c2\u00a0 For smaller,\u00c2\u00a0secretive and non-aggressive animals such as turtles and rabbits and squirrels and chipmunks, we tolerate their presence so long as they don’t get in the way of our cars or lawn movers, or dare to scavenge in our gardens and garbage.\u00c2\u00a0 For the larger, more predatory critters, their very existence in our\u00c2\u00a0midst poses a threat to our manicured and domesticated lives.\u00c2\u00a0 “Coyotes and foxes and snakes, oh my.\u00c2\u00a0 Hide your pets, guard your children; the wilderness is coming to a backyard near you!”<\/p>\n

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Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) on West Island Sun Deck<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We must admit that Turtle Journal loves foxes like prodigal children.\u00c2\u00a0 Back fifteen years or so, a wily female fox “learned” how to hunt diamondback terrapins in Wellfleet Bay and developed quite a taste for them.\u00c2\u00a0 She killed over a hundred of these threatened turtles and fed them to her kits.\u00c2\u00a0 We worried that she might pass along this skill to her offspring, but luckily, the skill passed with her.\u00c2\u00a0 So, now we can love foxes without reservation.<\/p>\n

As the Turtle Journal team drove to West Island on Saturday, hugging the shoreline along Balsam Street heading for the south point, we spotted a beautiful red fox lazing on the side of the road, relaxing like a puppy dog and savoring the long rays of late afternoon sunshine.\u00c2\u00a0 We slowed to a crawl to get cameras ready, but impatient weekenders in the car behind us seemed oblivious to the fox, swerved around us and tore down the street\u00c2\u00a0to get to the beach for sightseeing.\u00c2\u00a0 Go figure.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Greater New Bedford Area with West Island on the Lower Right<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

West Island lies on the western coast of Buzzards Bay in Fairhaven and within the Great New Bedford area.\u00c2\u00a0 The middle of the island is largely\u00c2\u00a0pristine woodlands with dense cottage development along the western shore.\u00c2\u00a0 The north, south and east coasts of West Island are covered with sometimes sandy, often rocky beaches with a scattering of salt marshes throughout.\u00c2\u00a0 Terrapins were documented on West Island a couple of decades ago, but no sign of their presence has been observed for the last five years of intense search.<\/p>\n

The fox bolted across the street toward cottages along the beach.\u00c2\u00a0 Sue jumped out with the camera, while\u00c2\u00a0Don ran interference\u00c2\u00a0with an\u00c2\u00a0upset resident.\u00c2\u00a0 “You’re not going to\u00c2\u00a0do anything to\u00c2\u00a0it, are you?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s\u00c2\u00a0MY<\/strong> fox; I’m taking care of it.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re not going to take it, are you?\u00c2\u00a0 It lives in my yard and I’m taking care of it.”\u00c2\u00a0 While Sue shot footage, Don spoke to the woman about the dangers to the animal and to her family, too, of trying to domesticate a wild fox in such a\u00c2\u00a0highly trafficked\u00c2\u00a0and developed\u00c2\u00a0location.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Red Fox Relaxing on Sun Deck of Closed Summer Cottage<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sue noted that\u00c2\u00a0the fox approached her repeatedly as she photographed it.\u00c2\u00a0 At first she thought it might be rabid, but on reflection, it may simply have lost its instinctive fear of humans from being “cared for.”\u00c2\u00a0 Not a useful survival\u00c2\u00a0trait for a wild fox.\u00c2\u00a0 You can see how the animal has made itself at home on the sun-drenched decking of a seaside cottage closed for the season.<\/p>\n

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Red Fox Returning to Her\u00c2\u00a0Litter with a Mouthful (Two Chipmunks)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

We had a similar experience in South Wellfleet this spring.\u00c2\u00a0 A couple of female foxes raised their kits on the decks of closed cottages abutting the salt marsh of Lieutenant Island.\u00c2\u00a0 Not always looking in the best of condition, one of the females learned the skill of hunting chipmunks, an extremely plentiful food supply among the cottages of the Outer Cape.\u00c2\u00a0 Once summer residents return in June, though, life becomes more\u00c2\u00a0problematic for these wild foxes reared so close to human development.<\/p>\n

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Sippican Harbor Red Fox Foraging in Salt Marsh at Sunset<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 2005\u00c2\u00a0we observed red fox in Marion Village\u00c2\u00a0along Sippican Harbor.\u00c2\u00a0 The one pictured above was hunting at twilight along the salt marsh surrounding Tabor Academy’s marine science center.\u00c2\u00a0 We spotted fox that summer and early fall romping through the Tabor campus, but haven’t seen any since then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As humans expand development and\u00c2\u00a0invade the few remaining slices of\u00c2\u00a0natural habitat in coastal New\u00c2\u00a0England,\u00c2\u00a0wild creatures are increasingly forced to survive\u00c2\u00a0on the edge of civilization, spilling over into once wild, now “domesticated” lands.\u00c2\u00a0 For smaller,\u00c2\u00a0secretive and non-aggressive animals such as turtles and rabbits and squirrels and chipmunks, we tolerate their presence so long as they don’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23],"tags":[96,785,786,134,697,787,794,791,511,790,783,793,781,34,792,782,788,194,784,795,796,110,828,789,66,696],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1041,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1016\/revisions\/1041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turtlejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}