Baby Foxes - Finally!

Not all nature is cute and fluffy, but these fox kits are!

Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) have some of the most well-loved babies here in Northern Virginia.  Their playfulness captures the hearts of all of us, their big eyes are adored, and watching them becomes an activity, as well as an opportunity for a lot of families in the suburbs.

I had the opportunity to enjoy watching some of these baby foxes with Derek and Liz Smeds this year. They watched them from their house and I watched them from my computer screen, as I placed a trail camera right at the den entrance after they had notified me about the location of the den.

Derek had shared some photos of fox kits playing in the neighbor's yard a week or so before I had a chance to get out to them.  I was hooked immediately when I realized that the foxes were playing there very often and were occupying an old groundhog den.

It was exactly what I was looking for.

I met up with Liz at their house and quickly got in contact with the landowner a few doors down, where the den was.  Permission was granted for us to start a small camera trap survey of the animals. Everyone's excitement showed tremendously.

A camera was set up and we waited patiently for the first photos. In the mean time, Liz and Derek messaged me often about any behavior they were seeing.  They texted me every few days when they'd see them, sometimes explaining how close the foxes were. Liz says "We have always had wildlife in this neighborhood and enjoy seeing it."  I could tell.  The Smeds family was as enthusiastic about this as I was.

To everyone's amazement, the first time the camera was checked was a very successful one.  A lot of footage of the foxes appeared. Again and again, the camera provided phenomenal photos of the local foxes, each time providing better results than the last.

It was awesome!

Like human children, the fox kits played, fought, ate, and pooped a lot. These behaviors are typical of fox babies, and will continue until they turn into adults when a lot of their life is hunting and taking care of their own young.

The images were from only a few weeks ago, and since then, the camera has been removed to start a new project in the area with local beavers.

The foxes will grow up and move on too, patrolling our woods and eating undesired rodents.

I would like to personally thank Derek and Liz Smeds, their neighbors, and the community of Countryside, VA for allowing me to work on this little project.  It is much appreciated!

Virginia is For Fox Lovers

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.

Fooled and Fooled Again

While a lot of the camera traps that I use are for scientific surveys and owned by parks, nature preserves, and various parks/wildlife agencies, I tend keep a bunch for myself that are owned by me.

These ones are moved often, as they do not fit into a scientific proposal or specific project.  It's a sort of freedom that I really enjoy.  With these though, I like to challenge myself to get really cool stuff coming across the cameras.

This year, I've been all about the fox dens.  Last year's fox kit pictures and blog posts turned out phenomenal and I'm really hoping I can get something similar this year.  It takes a lot of work and time to search for fox dens, but it could prove to be really useful in the end.  Emails and messages have been flying around like crazy and many miles have been walked, in search for the holes made by these small canids.

There always seems to be a bit of a debate as to whether a hole or den site belongs to a fox or a groundhog, and while I've spent the past few years studying them, reading up on them, and tagging along with others in the field with various animal dens, I still have not perfected the art of determining what is a fox den and what is a groundhog den.

The phrase "Brian, you should know this stuff."  commonly pops up into my head, upon visiting each den site.  It's interesting though and makes this sort of fun.

Young groundhog in a "prairie dog" type of stance in Lovettsville, VA.

Don't worry though, I know the "textbook" definition of a fox den and a groundhog den, but that is just what it is.  Generally, groundhog dens are a bit differently shaped than fox dens and dirt may be thrown out of each hole in a different pattern with each species.  They both can be commonly built on berms or small hillsides either in the middle of the woods or in meadows.

To me, the easy way to tell if a fox has been in a den is to put my face near it and take a whiff of the air.  If it smells like fox urine (a pungent smell that is similar to skunk spray), a fox has usually been there.  To make this even more complicated though, is to add the fact that a fox could have been hunting a baby groundhog, co-habitating (living with) the groundhog, or just marking the territory nearby.

I've been fooled with this time after time.  This year has been the epitome of me getting fooled by foxes and groundhogs, and just when I think I've got an active den with fox kits, a groundhog will appear.

It's a bit discouraging, but it's all part of camera trapping.

Resident groundhog from Loudoun County, VA from this past March.

New Dens

Newly dug fox hole.

The better part of this afternoon was spent working and scouting locations for where I should put up camera traps next.

Through some dense brush and "the thick stuff", I stumbled across a new den site, of the fox variety.

One impressive entrance hole was made deep into the little berm where the dens were being made.  An exit hole was only just beginning though, and was no more than 3 days old.

Hopefully we'll be seeing some fox kits within the next two months.

Camera traps will tell us all this though, but for now, I'm going to stay away from this den so I do not disturb the animals that are building it.

Last year brought some incredible results from fox dens that not only helped estimate the canid population, but gave me a great opportunity to educate the public on what some cute northern Virginia baby foxes looked like.

See the link here to view some results from last year's red fox den and its activity:
Red Fox Kits 2014

There's no telling what will happen though.  Time will tell, and that is the beauty of all this.

Partially dug out exit or entrance hole to a new fox den.

That "Old Lady Getting Murdered" Kind of Noise

Cicadas, other insects, and frogs make up a good percentage of the natural noise that a person might hear outside at night around Northern Virginia.  Owls, domestic cats, bats, and other birds are also common.

BUT, There are two very specific animals that might make a person cringe or wonder at night though.  These animals are foxes and coyotes.  We have both here in Northern Va, and they are all over the place.  I highly doubt there is a single town or city in Loudoun, Fairfax, Prince William, or Arlington where both of these animals do not exist.

They have come up on trail cameras, people have put videos of them on YouTube, 911 calls are made when some people see them, and early morning commuters sometimes catch a quick glimpse of both of these critters.

So at night, how do you tell the difference between a coyote noise and a fox noise?  

Well, it can be tricky, but for the most part a coyote will yip and howl with an extremely high pitched noise for a mammal.  They sound like they are singing to each other.  Coyotes will "let loose" a noise that is incredibly loud and may sound similar to domestic dogs howling with high notes.  They can also bark, howl, and whine. 

Foxes usually do a noise around here that I've heard described to me as an "Old lady getting murdered".  I agree, although I have never heard an old lady getting murdered.  While foxes do bark, howl, and whine, the noise that I usually hear is a raspy whine that is close to a scream. 

Speaking of foxes, here's a recent one that came up on a trail camera that I set up in Leesburg, VA. 

 I wonder if this one whines like an old lady getting murdered.

Fox and Go Pro

Just like the title says, see what happens when I put one of the Go Pro cameras down for a few minutes near a red fox.

It definitely gets a bit too curious for my comfort, and am glad it didn't run off with the camera.

No bait, scent, or lure was used at all.

The Ants Go Marching

A coworker helped me with some cameras today and found one completely covered in ants.

Upon closer inspection, ants had completely invaded the entire interior of the camera-trap.  We spent a good hour opening up the camera, unscrewing screws, cleaning it out, and putting it back together.

We completed our "Camera-Trap Surgery" in the field as we swatted away maybe 25 mosquitoes and picked off ticks of our legs.  The ants had made an entire food storage type of room in the camera along with an egg holding cell.  It was rough, but we managed to save the camera and found that no electrical components had been badly damaged.

We checked the SD card on a laptop in the field as well, but only found a few pictures of a red fox and raccoons.

But hey, you can't win with bears, coyotes, and other "crowd pleasers" every day.  It was still a good day out on the trails, and I thank him greatly for helping me today.

Kittens, Not Kits

A few weeks ago, colleagues and I found a very active gray fox den.  We scoped out the area a bit and saw kits coming in and out, along with a healthy looking mother. 

Of course a camera-trap was put up at this den (which is a completely different den than the red fox den that I’ve been posting about in the past few weeks). But, like a lot of camera-trapping and wildlife research, results were not at all as expected.

The camera was checked once last week, and to my surprise, not one single image came up of a gray fox.  Results were only of white-tailed deer, a tufted titmouse, and a raccoon.

It was odd, because by this point, on several occasions, I had seen the mother gray foxwith kits around her, about 15 feet from this den entrance.

The camera angle was moved to another entrance hole in the den network, and we waited another week.  Hopes were still high, as I had realized before that maybe the foxes didn’t use the previous entrance hole anymore.

The next time the camera was checked, there were a few white-tailed deer does walking around, and feral cats.  A lot of feral cats.

I saw the mother cat with her kittens, and eventually another adult cat walked by. 

They’re cute, as are a lot of mammalian babies, but these images could be the proof of an ecological problem that could turn into a nightmare.

Here’s why:  The domestic cat is a non-native, invasive species.  They are not supposed to be naturally found in this area (if you ask just about any naturalist, ecologist, or biologist).  If they are pushing native species out of dens, as in this case of the gray foxes, gray foxes may have a harder time raising their next generation.  This could cause less numbers of gray foxes.  Furthermore, this means that the ecosystem could drastically change in many ways. From food web changes to more diseases, I do see the growing feral cat population as a problem.

I won’t get into too many specific changes that these feral cats could cause to the environment, and I’m definitely not going to “Bob Barker” you into getting cats neutered, but this could be bad for both that

specific park itself, and many surrounding areas.  In fact, it may already be a problem, as I have seen over 63 different individual domestic cats on all my cameras just in the past 8 months alone.

Maybe you’ll enjoy these photos as cute and fuzzy kitten images, but maybe you’ll also see why domestic cats should not be roaming the woodlands of northern Virginia.

The Piebald Fox Returns

The fox that is called, "White Legs" has not shown up on any Great Falls, VA cameras in a long time.

White Legs has been one of my favorite individual red foxes around for a long time now, and it has been a pleasure watching he/she romping around the forest.

It's been some time since White Legs last showed, many  months actually, but today I checked a camera and realized I finally got an image of the white-legged predator in May.

It's not the perfect image, by any means, but it's enough to prove that it's the fox that I know.

It has grown to be extremely elusive.  This could be a good thing though, as red foxes are naturally afraid of humans and should not be fed or petted by people who live nearby.

The Best Fox Kit Pictures So Far

The red fox kits in Fairfax County are still as active as ever and are growing fast. These are the same ones that I've been blogging about in the past few weeks.

Like human children, their daily activities consist of eating, pooping, and playing, without a care in the world. Must be nice!

They've been eating on their own and don't seem to be with their mother as much already.

Here's some stills of the red fox kits of Great Falls, Virginia. . .

. . . and of course videos!

One thing to take note of though is that one of the kits has a fairly large rash on its throat and neck.  It's a patch of red without fur (picture below).  Look closely at its neck to see what I mean. 

What do you think caused this?  Possible explanations that I (and other biologists, naturalists, and friends) have thought of is heat rash, scratching, mange, mites, fungus, disease, foul play between foxes, the mother red fox carrying the kit, or another predator.

I'll be watching these kits closely, and hope you will too.

Fox Kits, Fox Kits, Fox Kits

There are now two cameras at the active fox den in Great Falls, Va.  One camera is for pictures and one is for video.  That's right VIDEO of the bundles of joy!

Immerse yourself in a maximum level of furry cuteness.

Don't worry, there will be more to come.  I'm keeping a close eye on these kits.

Red Fox Rendezvous

I am putting the final touches on some graphs, charts, and tables that show the results (and how-to's) of my red fox survey between the months of this March, 2013 and March, 2014 in park lands and private lands of Northern Virginia.

Results include current living foxes, foxes that have been hit by cars (or died by other means), foxes that have moved out of the area, and fox kits

Here is a very watered-down and simplistic version of my data:

In a 24 acre plot, there were 3 individual red foxes

In a 60 acre plot, there were 4 individual red foxes.

In a 350 acre plot, I've found that there were at least 7 individual red foxes.

In a 430 acre plot, there were 9 individual red foxes.

In a 600 acre plot, there were 9 individual red foxes.

I get this data by comparing camera-trap images of different cameras set up in each park.  A red fox that appears at one camera (under normal circumstances) cannot be the same red fox that appears at another camera 1 mile away, 30 seconds later.  BAM!  That's two individual foxes.  Some red foxes look completely different from eachother, others are a little more difficult to recognize.  Figure in more parks and a heck of a lot more cameras, and results like this pour in to my computer on a daily basis.

Denning Season

It's denning season for the canids of Virginia.  That means that I'll be spending some time tracking fox, coyote, and other footprints through the mud and snow to help me find these dens.  When I find one, a camera will be going up.

Here's a good one that I found yesterday.  You can tell by the amount of footprints and kicked dirt around it that it is very active.

I used extreme care and caution not to get too close or disturb the animals that may be living in there.

Here's to hoping for pups or kits of fox or coyote this spring!

Rat-Tail

Fairfax County has the famous fox that we all call "White Legs" (see previous post on White Legs here: A Friend of White Legs" but what famous fox does Loudoun County have?

The answer:  Loudoun County is home to a red fox that we'll call "Rat-Tail".

Rat-Tail is a unique red fox with a tail that is not bushy at all.  It is unknown why this fox looks like this.  It could be mange, disease, parasites, genetics, injury, or self-inflicted, we just don't know yet.

Rat-Tail first appeared on camera-trap images last year, then went A.W.O.L. for months, until now.  Rat-Tail could be a male or a female, there's no telling yet.

This fox could have a mate, since we have seen it romping around with another red fox lately.  It came across this camera in the daytime, just trotting by in a very canine-like fashion with its nose down.  It didn't stop at all by the camera, and continued on quickly.

Wildlife Experiences

In the past two weeks I've been experiencing wildlife in incredible ways.  I've been trying to blog but have not had much time to check as many cameras as usual, but that short break of blogging ends now, and I'll be checking at least 12 cameras tomorrow.

During this little break, I've had some amazing wildlife experiences.  Here's a little list of what I've done and seen in the past 2 weeks.

• Saw a coyote on a deer kill in Reston, Virginia.
• Presented at the Virginia Chapter Meeting of The Wildlife Society.
• Compared data and conversed with the leading biologist of the Smithsonian about camera traps that he had in Virginia. 
• Camera-trapped some kind of weasel.  I am still in the process of identifying it but will post about it shortly.
• Talked with other camera-trappers of Virginia Tech, Ferrum College, and Radford University.
• Saw a bald eagle pick off a Canada goose on the Potomac River.  The fight only lasted a few seconds.
• Got a new camera-trap location in Falls Church, Virginia
• Supposedly had another bear attack a camera yesterday.  I'll be checking that camera tomorrow to see the damage.

It's crazy to think how all of these wildlife experiences all started with me putting up a single camera in a local park, just over a year ago.

Foxes During the Day

Even though this part of Virginia has been facing temperatures in the single digits lately, the red fox foxes are jumping in front of the cameras in the daytime more than ever before.

Why is this? Well, I think there are two reasons.  

Here's the first reason:

Foxes don't like to be around humans, at least for the most part.  They tend to shy away from us and that's the way it should be.  

Since there are less people walking around parks (or other places that I have cameras) during the winter, foxes may be more comfortable with coming out in the day.  

More foxes out during the day means more chances of camera-trap images of them in the day.

Here's the other reason:

Winter this year has been cold.  Very cold. For the past few days, temperatures have barely been able to make it higher than the 20 degree fahrenheit mark.  

These temperatures have been warmer than nighttime temperatures, which have gotten as low as 2 degrees. 

Foxes would prefer to be out in the warmer part of each day than out in the middle of the night.  This increases the chances of getting red foxes on camera in the daytime as well.

Taking Chances in the Snow

Snow is on the ground and hope is in my mind for more "Fox in Snow" camera-trap images.  See a previous example of a "Fox in the Snow" image in White Snow for White Legs .

The better part of yesterday was spent hiking, birding, and camera-trapping around in the white stuff.  I was in search of more places to set up the cams.  The big problem with this though, is that I put up expensive equipment in the middle of the woods, out of view of anybody, with my footprints very well defined in the snow.

It's a risk, I know.

If somebody really wants to follow me off trail to see what I was doing, they can.  I tried to be good about it though.  When possible I rerouted myself, walked across logs, and walked on places of high grass so that my footprints would be harder to track.

In addition to this, windy conditions last night blew up the "dry" powdery snow and hopefully covered my tracks a little better. 

If I didn't risk these cameras often to poachers, off-trail walkers, teenagers, bears, rising waters, and the weather, then I probably would have very few pictures and this blog wouldn't exist. 

White Snow for White Legs

The bright orange of a red fox aganst the white blanket of snow makes for some really great pictures.  I was really hoping some of my cameras would pick up this kind of scene recently since there has been some snow on the ground.

White Legs, the famous fox of Great Falls, Virginia made more appearances in the daytime than ever.  He didn't seem to mind the snow too much.

It's still unclear where the den of White Legs is located, but I have a good idea of where, now that I've seen tracks going back and forth to one specific area.

Those tracks might be of another red fox though, such as this one that also came by Camera Set 58.

One thing that I have noticed in the past few weeks though is that all of the foxes that have been on camera recently have been sporting their winter coats. 

The winter coat of White Legs is typical of a red fox with the orange and grays, but with the exception of the hind legs.

The winter coat of this other fox in the above picture is a little different.  Most of its body is a burnt orange while its rump and hind legs are more of a golden color.  The tail remains a bit orange but with a grayish underside.

Red foxes can vary a bit in color, and it is fairly common for them to have reds, oranges, blacks, grays, golds, and silvers, in their coat.

A Friend of White Legs

"We got white legs!!!!" was the text I received from another fellow camera-trapper in Great Falls, Virginia.  Excitement was evident.

We had in fact, camera-trapped White Legs, the red fox.  The saga continues!

Read the other posts about White Legs here:  White Legs . White Legs Returns

This time, White Legs met up with a friend.  You can see another fox there in the background.  Could this be just a friendly meet up?  Or is one of the foxes a female, pushing our chances of fox kits up this upcoming spring?

White Legs made a good amount of appearances at the camera this time.  Everyone seems to know and love this fox.

My co-workers enjoy the images, my volunteers and interns love checking the camera where it always seems to be, and the human neighbors just can't seem to get enough of White Legs. 

Everyone is under strict orders not to feed this fox to see it.  It's illegal to feed foxes in Virginia anyway, but everyone around the home of White Legs still has gone through a 2 minute long speech on why they shouldn't feed it.

This one is one of my favorites so far.

Enjoy your Friday, folks!

Gray Fox Territory

There's no mistaking this animal on a camera.  It is no doubt a gray fox.  The black stripe on the tail, the gray coat, and the size are all indicators of what carnivore this is.

Just like all other foxes around the area, grays eat small mammals that they find running around meadows and forests.  Grays have the ability to climb trees unlike most of foxes.  I wouldn't say they are as good at climbing as cats, but they do it from time to time.

This is one of my favorite camera locations.  It is decently far away from where I live and have other cameras, so I only get to check it once every 6 weeks, or even longer. 

The drive to get to it is nice, and the property owners love seeing the pictures, so it is well worth it for me to keep the camera there.  If you're curious to know where it is, all I can tell you is that the camera is located in Lucketts, Virginia.

Here's another picture (of the infrared variety) of a gray fox in the same location.

Deer also showed up a lot and have been the most common animal on this camera.