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Saving Natural Lands, Now and Forever |
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My article about gray foxes in the previous newsletter elicited quite a few responses from Foothill Advocate readers, some from the Fresno foothill area, some from the farmland east of the city of Fresno, one from Madera County, and even one from the middle of Plumas County, north of Lake Tahoe! It seems that gray foxes are all over. Everybody who wrote to me expressed delight at the sight of these dainty little creatures. Several of the writers mentioned seeing the foxes climbing trees. For example, one writer reported that a group of Fresno State University faculty members, seated at a meeting in the Thomas Administration Building on Maple Avenue, in the middle of the campus, were startled to see a fox climb a tall shrub just outside the window of the meeting room. The fox climbed to the top of the shrub and onto the roof of the building. Another writer, this one on a ranch east of Clovis, described a tree house that one of her sons had built high in a large camphor tree. When the children abandoned the tree house, a fox family took it over and had "several batches" of babies there. She added, "It was a big thrill to see them jump from the ground to the V in the tree without a running start." A gentleman who visited the SFC booth at the Harvest Arts Festival wanted to tell us about his startling experience some time ago when he looked up into a large oak tree and saw a fox about ten feet above peering down at him. He said that the fox walked out to the end of a long branch and, when the branch dipped to within about ten feet of the ground, jumped nimbly down. Another common theme among the writers was the fox's fondness for fruit. A writer from Pine Ridge reported foxes helping themselves to the apples in her orchard. Another, not far from Sanger, said that shortly after her family moved into their present home they saw a fox trotting across the back lawn in broad daylight to feast on fallen peaches in the nearby orchard. She said that in the six years she has lived there, the sightings of foxes have become more numerous. "I think when we added the vegetable garden and the domestic blackberries we closed the gap in the annual food supply, and since we encourage the riparian screen along the creek we also provide ideal habitat."Several residents of Morgan Canyon (between Prather and Academy) have told us that they have seen gray foxes, especially in late spring. One told me, "The first time we encountered one was in May and it was in our front yard eating a gopher and drinking out of our birdbath." The same correspondent reports that in June a fox family with two adults and four kits were present in her garden on a regular basis. I've received mixed reports about encounters between gray fox and domestic cats. On the one hand, a writer from Indian Lakes Estates reports having seen a fox trotting down the road with the body of a dead cat in its mouth. On the other hand, the writer from Placer County is convinced that his cat has the upper hand in relation to the local fox. He describes an encounter between the two that resulted in "...noises that I had never heard before, from both the cat and the fox. I only wish I had had my video camera to capture the sounds. The cat won and the fox took another route..." This same writer managed to take a picture of "his" fox while it was helping itself to a dish of dog food. He stated that he was certain that the flash would cause the fox to bolt and run away in panic, but in fact it seemed not to faze the fox a bit and it kept right on eating. To all of you who sent e-mails about your encounters with foxes, I send you my sincere "Thank you!" It was great fun to hear from you all.
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Copyright 2000, Sierra Foothill Conservancy - Prather, California |
