Nothing strikes the hearts of Northern Virginia's suburbanites more than baby red foxes. It's incredible how much interest there is in these animals.
Foxes are cool, and lots of people are enthusiastic about seeing red foxes in their neighborhood, but when the bright eyed, curious babies come out in late April, people go absolutely wild for these things like you wouldn't believe.
It was a bit of a goal of mine to capture some of them of, at least one of my camera traps this year, as I did fairly well with footage last year (The Best Fox Kit Pictures So Far- 2014 ). Emails have been pouring in with unconfirmed leads of the whereabouts of fox dens, and I have worked so hard with landowners, parks staff, and other naturalists to try to provide everyone with some interesting photos (and video!). One lead from Northern Virginia was clearly the best one that I have ever had. It's amazing, it's a secret location, and I can't thank the colleague and friend of mine who led me down the right path to this one, enough.
As previously stated in an earlier blog post (Fooled and Fooled Again), the amount of groundhog dens that were fooling me and my colleagues was getting high.
Discouraging, might be the best word to describe this whole situation of not finding any fox dens.
Amazed, would be the word to describe my thoughts when first seeing this footage.
It's only fitting that I release these now on the blog.
These were posted on Facebook, and one specific video almost went viral, being shared many times, and generating a huge interest in camera trapping and wildlife.
I have seen both the mother and father on camera and in person. 4 individual kits (fox babies) have been identified, so in total, they are a family of 6. Each kit has a different personality, and it is quite an experience watching the videos of all of them nursing, playing, fighting, and yelling.
As you can see in the second picture above, the kits are only eating the milk provided by their mother. This will last for a little while, until eventually they ween themselves onto a diet of rodents, birds, snakes, berries, carrion, and much, much more.
Pictures like these are ones that a Northern Virginia naturalist and camera trapper dreams of, and I thank you for visiting this site to enjoy them as well.
