Pam’s Perspective
From the…
Pam Otto is the Manager of Natural Programs and Interpretive Services for the St. Charles Park District
July 6, 2012
I’ll admit, I’m not the most up-to-date person when it comes to pop culture. I don’t have a television, so I’d be hard pressed to name more than a handful of hit shows. And I don’t see many movies, so unless my friends are talking about them, much of what comes out of Hollywood flies right past me.
I do read, but most of the books on my nightstand are either field guides or nature magazines. (Okay, just to prove I’m not totally one-dimensional, I do have a few Carl Hiaasen novels and a Far Side book I look at occasionally. So there.)
Even though I might not be able to identify a single song by Justin Bieber, and I had to Google Channing Tatum to find out why his name keeps coming up, I thought I was fairly well informed on happenings in our natural world.
That is, until the fox emails started coming in.
I would guess I’ve heard from at least five people in the last couple of months saying they’ve got a fox, or foxes, in their yard/alley/neighborhood. Some of the emails described young foxes that were perhaps looking to move in and claim a territory as their own; other notes talked of fox moms raising their young in the relative safety of a suburban backyard or park.
Meanwhile, I had yet to see a single fox, either at home or at work. You’d think working at a nature center would increase my chances, but, nope. Not a fox to be found, anywhere, for this naturalist.
Which kinda bummed me out. Because the red fox, Vulpes vulpes, is one of those animals that greatly enriches our local landscape. It’s considered common, but not overly abundant. It goes about its business, controlling populations of rodents and rabbits (and berries, in season) quietly, quite unlike the headline-grabbing brashness displayed by its cousin the coyote.
What’s more, it’s, well, pretty. Its fur is a lovely shade of rusty red, tipped with yellow and accented with a splash of white across the chest and on the end of the tail. The hues deepen on the animal’s extremities, with the feet appearing almost black.
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The fox’s demeanor typically is curious, but cautious. And although it is classified as a carnivore, it’s small—about 15 lbs. on average—and will forage for plant material just as readily as it will hunt for meat.
True, there may be an occasional rogue that makes a pest of itself (the phrase “fox in the hen house comes to mind). But for the most part the red fox just fulfills its niche in the ecosystem, posing little threat to us humans or our pets.
Which doesn’t mean the red fox doesn’t have its challenges. In recent decades, the species was hard hit by sarcoptic mange, a nasty parasite that causes skin infections, hair loss and death. The fox also has felt the impact of our burgeoning coyote population. Coyotes have been known to kill animals they view as threats, and foxes rank high on the hit list.
So when people began writing in about their fox sightings, I took their reports as good news, at least as far as the species is concerned. But I admit, I was also a tad envious.
It had been a long time since I’d seen a fox in my own neighborhood, probably 10 years or more. Even so, I remember the encounter vividly. My husband and I were out for a walk and had stopped to pet Leo, a friendly neighborhood cat that also had a reputation for killing squirrels, crows and other suburban big game. Leo was sprawled on the sidewalk, enjoying a tummy rub, when his body stiffened; he then made one of those low, rumbling growls cats make when they mean business. Since it was too late at night for crows and squirrels, we at first wondered what was getting him so lathered. Then, following his gaze across the street, we saw his quarry: a beautiful red fox trotting along the sidewalk. S/he was moving purposefully, but stopped short at the sight, or maybe scent, of Leo. The last image I have of that fox is it dashing away down Seventh Street, with Leo in hot pursuit.
Flash forward to last Friday night. I was thinking about fox sightings, both old and new, as I drove home from a late-night program at Hickory Knolls. I was headed south on Seventh, just past Prairie, when I noticed something off to the side of my headlight beam. My brain at first registered “cat,” but followed quickly with, “Hey, that’s a mighty tall cat.” I slowed down as the animal entered the street and stopped as it trotted in front of me.
It was, you guessed it, a red fox.
How about you? Have you seen any red foxes in your neighborhood? If so, and it’s not too much trouble, drop me a line or give a call with the details of where and when, and just what the fox was up to. As they have in the past, your reports will help us get a handle on how this fine species is faring in the TriCities and beyond. They may even provide fodder for future columns.
Plus, they will give me something to think about while I’m not watching TV.
Pam Otto is the manager of nature programs and interpretive services for the St. Charles Park District. She can be reached at 630-513-4346 or potto@stcparks.org. She also wanted to mention that, despite the large number of statues indicating otherwise, the Fox River was most likely named after a Native American tribe known as the Meskwaki, or Fox. Neat, huh?