Screaming fox won't leave me alone

[DonyaQuick]

Might be one that was trained to lose it's fear of humans because some moron was feeding it.

After I got the fox to clear out, I had a doe of all things that kept creeping up on me when I was cleaning the coop in the early morning. There was practically zero fear from that deer unless I did something really over the top like set the dog on it. Took quite a few repetitions of that to make it clear off for good. Not a normal behavior, and not something I saw from any deer last year. I do suspect at this point that someone new moved into the area and has been feeding stuff other than songbirds.

 

[Psychofeatherlover]

Chicken Alcatraz and yes mountain lions are no joke. We just heard a large pack of coyotes outside, and I love it! I love the coyote greeting/locating song. So I listened to em, and then went and got the rifle. I love them and try to live in peace with every creature on the planet, but at the end of the day, they r predators, they are hungry, and they want chicken or duck or both for supper. Never seen em, so I'm hoping they went the other way. They were about 200 foot up creek from us. Too close for me, and apparently for the flock too. Every time I get near the lot, they all start quacking and carrying on..not tonight. They didn't make a sound. Not one peep, quack, or wing flap.

 

[BarnyardChaos]

Conservation agents in our area will insist there are NO mountain lions anywhere near our area (30 miles east of Kansas City), despite neighbors who've caught them on game cameras, footprints identified, and a few dead livestock with clear evidence. My son nearly lost a yearling calf last year to what we believe was a mountain lion. I think one was hanging out in our barn when we first moved out here - I'm sure I heard it growl but never saw it, and found clear cat footprints in the snow that were as big as my palm.

Fox got a few of my chickens last spring. Never caught her. Poor birds rarely get to free-range now, due to her presence in the woods nearby. I don't hear them calling or screaming, though. Not yet. It's mating time now, so they should be screaming.

I hear coyote packs in the vicinity every week or so, sometimes close, sometimes far. Gives me the eebie-jeebies every time, and I'm sure the cattle, too. Neighbor across the road has lost several calves over the years (butts up to a wilderness), we believe to coyotes or maybe mountain lion. Thank goodness so far they've left ours alone, but when I've got bottle calves in the corral and open shed, or goat kids in the pen, I never sleep well. Next time, I'm going to build a way to lock them up safe.

 

[Captain13]

On the bright light…..once the fox realizes that it;s not really a threat, it will No longer be deterred by the light. Move the light around, if possible so that the fox doesn’t figure out it’s always in the same spot all the time.

 

[Reave]

One of the reasons foxes can seem to be attracted to dogs is that if a fox has denned up nearby, they consider the dogs a threat and want to protect their kits by harassing the dogs until they leave-- unaware, perhaps, that the dogs simply can't choose to leave their own yards (and that many wouldn't, even if they had the choice).

It is often to the fox's detriment, of course, as one slip up will leave them at the mercy of the dogs.

Doesn't seem incredibly likely with your situation, weird time of year when it began, but might help explain why even foxes that haven't been fed by misguided folk sometimes seem attracted to houses with dogs.

Unrelated to this case but interesting, there is also toxoplasmosis, which they catch from wandering or feral cats, which will make them bizarrely docile and tolerant of all sorts of interaction, which is often mistaken for distemper or rabies (and unfortunately for the fox, not worth the risk of trying to make the distinction to the average layperson, as being wrong comes with such a hefty cost).

 

[Krugerrand]

One of the reasons foxes can seem to be attracted to dogs is that if a fox has denned up nearby, they consider the dogs a threat and want to protect their kits by harassing the dogs until they leave-- unaware, perhaps, that the dogs simply can't choose to leave their own yards (and that many wouldn't, even if they had the choice).

It is often to the fox's detriment, of course, as one slip up will leave them at the mercy of the dogs.

Doesn't seem incredibly likely with your situation, weird time of year when it began, but might help explain why even foxes that haven't been fed by misguided folk sometimes seem attracted to houses with dogs.

Unrelated to this case but interesting, there is also toxoplasmosis, which they catch from wandering or feral cats, which will make them bizarrely docile and tolerant of all sorts of interaction, which is often mistaken for distemper or rabies (and unfortunately for the fox, not worth the risk of trying to make the distinction to the average layperson, as being wrong comes with such a hefty cost).

toxoplasmosis .... interesting topic. I had never heard of it.

 

[Geena]

unaware, perhaps, that the dogs simply can't choose to leave their own yards

Oh, they know. Foxes are extremely clever, hence the term "outfoxed".
We have a lot of foxes here and my dogs encounter them several times a week. They know when the dogs are contained within the fence and will just sit there smugly and torment them. When they are out in the open fields it's a whole different story.

 

[Reave]

Oh, they know. Foxes are extremely clever, hence the term "outfoxed".
We have a lot of foxes here and my dogs encounter them several times a week. They know when the dogs are contained within the fence and will just sit there smugly and torment them. When they are out in the open fields it's a whole different story.

Oh certainly some seem to get a kick out of tormenting them! They can definitely tell when a dog can't get them beyond a fence, and so can a lot of critters-- deer, rabbits, a lot of critters can get acclimated to fences and things behind them. I was just referring to them not quite understanding that they can't force a dog to permanently vacate a territory by harassing them, like they would try with other competitors or threats-- in the context of a breeding pair becoming more territorial over kits.

That isn't to say they aren't very smart, just that they don't have the ability to contextualize our containment of other critters quite to the degree they understand they can't run 'em off.

 

[SycamoreHorsesFarm]

It's more anecdotal than anything but we had the same thing happen. I and my husband yelled at them several nights in a row then one night went out with a flashlight and there were two foxes. That time I decided F it, and started mimicking their scream back to them and they left and didn't come back!