Never Before Heard Call in the Night.... Fox (wav. file). Update: Tracks Update2: Saw Fox!

[chickengeorgeto]

I once had a red fox use me to flush young rabbets for the foxes dinner. The fox would maintain about 30 feet between us and move parallel to me. If I got 10 or 20 feet ahead it would catch up, look at me and nod like it was telling me that I should move forward now. If I fell behind the fox waited for me. I didn't have chickens in the neighborhood (a cow pasture) so I kept my Rugger .22 automatic in its holster. Every time I walked in this area checking cows and fences the fox showed up. This went on for weeks. Yes I saw him take a baby bunny I disturbed and several field mice and rats. I also imagine that this fox was also on the look out for afterbirth and calf manure with colostrum in it.

 

[K Epp]

I live in the same county as Speckledhen. What I was meaning is we have had rabid foxes in our area and last year one even bit someone.

I have a very pretty healthy looking red fox near me that I see fast glimpse of in the mornings on occasion. I bet those bears were the relocated dumpster bears from Gatlinburg. They move those to Cohutta and they have just crossed over.

The DNR do not admit to it, but the mountain lion were relocated in here as well along with red wolves. Did you see on the news a while back were a man shot and killed one because it was stalking him as was walking. Turns out it was the one who had taken a youngmans hunting dog out of the back of his truck as he was riding through the mountains. It got a claw ripped out in the bed of the truck. The one killed was missing one.

 

[speckledhen]

I live in the same county as Speckledhen. What I was meaning is we have had rabid foxes in our area and last year one even bit someone.

I have a very pretty healthy looking red fox near me that I see fast glimpse of in the mornings on occasion. I bet those bears were the relocated dumpster bears from Gatlinburg. They move those to Cohutta and they have just crossed over.

The DNR do not admit to it, but the mountain lion were relocated in here as well along with red wolves. Did you see on the news a while back were a man shot and killed one because it was stalking him as was walking. Turns out it was the one who had taken a youngmans hunting dog out of the back of his truck as he was riding through the mountains. It got a claw ripped out in the bed of the truck. The one killed was missing one.

No, I didn't see that story, very interesting! We have a mountain lion. I have evidence of it in the way of tracks next to my bantam coop, plus several people have asked us if we have seen or heard the cougar, not even knowing we had tracks on our property.

K Epp is right about the rabies in our county. We do have lots of that show up in foxes and raccoons. Once not long ago, a Llama was reported to have it, of all the weird things. Not sure if that was Fannin or Union County, the next one over from us, but it was in the paper. Thankfully, so far, this particular gray fox seems very healthy. It will not remain so if it continues to stalk my chickens, though. Amazing that it has been around as long as it has without touching my free rangers. We do have a huge rabbit population. And the rats I was seeing darting around out beyond the coops before we cut down some pasture grasses that had popped up post-tree thinning disappeared entirely. Between the fox and the coyote pack, the stray cat population has been pretty well decimated, as far as I can tell. Haven't seen one of those in ages.

Quote: I would agree that would be a big attraction for a fox, especially the afterbirth if the cows didn't eat it as they tend to do.