After my first sighting of Salty in the fall of 2016, I was fuelled up in wanting to follow and learn as much as I could about Red Foxes and observe them in the wild. I had done a fair bit of research to learn about when they tend to have young and calculated when I would likely to see young kits first coming out of their dens. I was rewarded for my research.
After we took a break from observing Salty on this visits first morning, we went to a different spot to give privacy back to where he was. We didn’t want to be too much of a distraction to his life.
After hunkering down in a new spot (somewhat camouflaged), we quietly waited. After maybe an half hour we were treated to seeing this from a safe distance, a vixen, who I named Bella, with her 4-5 weeks old kits popping out of what looked like a rabbit den ❤️. I was elated. Our safe distance had allowed mom to feel safe and allow kits to come out with any distress to go about their daily lives.
We also witnessed Salty coming by with a fresh kill, a rabbit, which was stored down into another den entrance just beside, there seemed to be a food cache there – more to research… This would my first time learning that these fox would often share the same den area with rabbits. Such a unique coexistence. When the fox kits went back down into the den and mom left to hunt, the rabbits would come out of the other den entrances, part of the same den network. They would sit right he their entrance and watch or feed close by. When the fox came close, they’d duck right back down to safety.
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Nickname: Bella with her kits
Age: approx 2 years of age with 4-5 week old kits.
Character: cautious, graceful, amazing mother
Date: April 2017
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