My photography of a fox den began in April of 2015
near my home in Canandaigua.
A wandering kit gave away the location. I set it up
a tripod mounted camera at the
den entrance. The following day I found the tripod
upended. A strap attached to the
camera pulled well into the hole.
I reset the tripod. That initial
set-up yielded over 1,000
photographs, but nothing the
second night. They had moved.
That was the beginning of an
ongoing story of the delight
and dangers in the life of the
red fox.I didn’t take notice of the den again until
early 2017,
then noticing tracks around the entrance, I set a
camera, but this time more subtly,
fixing the camera to a cottonwood trunk.
Initially I was disappointed as
apparently a woodchuck was
the new resident.
However, in the following days the initial
disappointment turned to fascination
as a several species came by, including, at its peril, a
rabbit. The other animals
just looked in, but the fox and woodchuck were using
the den. They were co-habitating!
Then activity settled into what I expected with foxes
in and out, occasionally bringing
prey. A woodchuck(s) would go in and out too. Until,
a clear behavior change when
the foxes sat outside entrance peering in. This,
because of what followed, is apparently
the adults waiting for the kits to make their first steps.
Three days later I got
photographs of three kits.
With the arrival of the kits the
woodchuck disappeared. The
kits played as you would
expect puppies to. Two were
most active. A third hung back and did not interact.
The videos showed the single one appearing to have
a lower level of strength and energy
From mid-April into the first week of May I was treated
with amusing photographs of the
three kits. The adult brought in birds and small
mammals for food. Often the kits would
play with these offerings.
Then the fox den life took a
sad turn.
As I approached my cameras
on May 5th I came on the body
of a kit. My guess as
I examine the photograph was that the kit was killed
by coyote asserting territorial rights.
I don’t know for certain, but coyotes regularly came
by and were picked up by my cameras.
Within a week, a second kit disappeared, the lone
survivor sat outside the entrance
This lone kit sharply changed
behavior. Figuratively tethered
to the den entrance, either
following the instruction of the
vixen or just traumatized, it
restricted its movements to a
small circle, until it too
disappeared.
It was heart-rending to see this lone kit so
constrained in its movement. When it
disappeared I no longer caught an adult fox in my
cameras for weeks. Then, on a camera
on a trail about fifty yards from the den I began to
see a growing little fox, almost
certainly this last kit had survived.
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