It's a crappy picture from my phone, but these are the gray fox kits that call my barn home. Every year at this time without fail, I can look forward to another litter being there. This year there's 4, and now their old enough to come out for romps during the day. The mother brings them out at night, and growls and barks at me if I dare get to close to them...it's a real treat to have them, so every year I turn the barn over to them and keep my distance until they move on.
The Gray Fox Den - My Barn
- Thread starter dockmurgw
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Ya gotta love those gray fox kits. I've attached some photos of some of the gray fox families that have lived in a den under our patio slab. A bonus for hosting fox families is that the mama foxes do a good job of keeping our obnoxious squirrel population under control.
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OP
Great pictures, I need to start carrying my camera. Just looked out the window and the mother and all 4 kits are out soaking up the sun. Very cool to have them as annual guests.
Absolutely outstanding! Set up a game camera. The quality of pictures are amazing.
S&WIowegan
US Veteran
We have a vixen(orange) who has made our wooded neighborhood her home area for many years. She seems to chose different den locations regularly. She has included under our back deck as one location. A few years ago she denned up under a yard waste pile which was very close to the street. We would see the kits out playing very near the street. When they are very young their range of awareness is very limited. We could stop our car and just watch them.
I don't object to fox in the neighborhood BUT please be aware house cats must be kept in or be lunch. We lost one years ago that refused to stay in.
I don't object to fox in the neighborhood BUT please be aware house cats must be kept in or be lunch. We lost one years ago that refused to stay in.
kthom
Member
During the last few years my wife and I lived in eastern NM, we were treated to the same pair of gray fox raising kits underneath a boxcar we had on our place. The female had a broken leg (right front) that had healed at an almost right angle to her leg. Probably got caught in a trap maybe, who knows? It sure didn't seem to handicap her much at all, but it was very obvious.
In any case, every summer we had three or four kits to sit and watch as they moved in and around our home there. We had some fruit trees around the place and those fox really loved the fruit when it began to ripen. Those gray fox can climb a tree just like a cat, so they harvested a good bit of the fruit when it made. They would climb the large fruitless mulberry in front of our front porch, walk down a large limb that hung over the porch, jump down on the roof of our home, and pick apples off the tree that had limbs hanging out over the roof. They would also snooze up there in the sun. We didn't ever chouse them or intentionally scare them, and the male and female seemed to know it was a safe place to raise their kits and so continued to show up ever year to do so. The only negative was the fact that they contributed a prodigious amount of fox scat underneath the shed off the boxcar. We had to be very careful where we stepped around there! They picked that place to do their business and we didn't find fox scat any where else on the place.
It was a very pleasant experience living with them for those years. We'd sit in a porch type swing on a frame out in the front yard at night under the sky with only ambient light to see by, and many times they would come up within very close distance to us and just sit and watch us as we watched back. We had quite a lot of those ring necked doves that are an import to this country that pooped on about everything around, and we'd find a pile of feathers pretty regularly where the foxes had dined during the night before. Wished they would have killed the multitude of grackles that hung around the place, but the foxes seemed to know that there was nothing good about those sorry birds and never killed and ate them. Smart as foxes, they were!
Dock, I say you are fortunate to have the company of the foxes, even if they do make a mess. They are interesting creatures for certain!
In any case, every summer we had three or four kits to sit and watch as they moved in and around our home there. We had some fruit trees around the place and those fox really loved the fruit when it began to ripen. Those gray fox can climb a tree just like a cat, so they harvested a good bit of the fruit when it made. They would climb the large fruitless mulberry in front of our front porch, walk down a large limb that hung over the porch, jump down on the roof of our home, and pick apples off the tree that had limbs hanging out over the roof. They would also snooze up there in the sun. We didn't ever chouse them or intentionally scare them, and the male and female seemed to know it was a safe place to raise their kits and so continued to show up ever year to do so. The only negative was the fact that they contributed a prodigious amount of fox scat underneath the shed off the boxcar. We had to be very careful where we stepped around there! They picked that place to do their business and we didn't find fox scat any where else on the place.
It was a very pleasant experience living with them for those years. We'd sit in a porch type swing on a frame out in the front yard at night under the sky with only ambient light to see by, and many times they would come up within very close distance to us and just sit and watch us as we watched back. We had quite a lot of those ring necked doves that are an import to this country that pooped on about everything around, and we'd find a pile of feathers pretty regularly where the foxes had dined during the night before. Wished they would have killed the multitude of grackles that hung around the place, but the foxes seemed to know that there was nothing good about those sorry birds and never killed and ate them. Smart as foxes, they were!
Dock, I say you are fortunate to have the company of the foxes, even if they do make a mess. They are interesting creatures for certain!
CW3Mike
Member
Cute animals. Thank you for sharing
jag312
Member
All I have are mice in my barn. Although I do have coyotes, ground squirrels, cottontail bunny rabbits and long eared jack rabbits around my place. There is also the occasional mountain lion that comes around and bothers my horse. I forgot. There are also quail.
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
For several years there was a grey fox who would raise as litter in the little patch of woods across a railroad spur line behind my apartment complex. I think either the mama died or coyotes ran her off, as I haven't seen a fox, red or grey, back there for four years or so.
I enjoyed watching them. Unfortunately, so did one of my neighbors who knows zilch about wild critters. She would put food, including fried chicken bones, out under a security light so she and a buddy could watch them. I had a hell if a time convincing her that cooked chicken bones can splinter into lethal slivers and kill the animal.
I don't know if she ever believed me. You can't tell some people anything.
I enjoyed watching them. Unfortunately, so did one of my neighbors who knows zilch about wild critters. She would put food, including fried chicken bones, out under a security light so she and a buddy could watch them. I had a hell if a time convincing her that cooked chicken bones can splinter into lethal slivers and kill the animal.
I don't know if she ever believed me. You can't tell some people anything.
catadjuster
Member
Very cool pictures! I am jealous of all of you with foxes (esp gray ones) in your barns/sheds. All I can ever get are mice and skunks.
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