The Fox Who Shared My Food
Three encounters with wild foxes in Anchor Bay, CA.
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FOXES SEEM TO LOVE MY FORESTED NEIGHBORHOOD in coastal Northern California. Neighbors report seeing these canine family members on nighttime trail cameras, and I've had several fox encounters.
The last one was a couple of months ago. I woke in the morning and looked out the window from the second-story bedroom to see what the day was like. I was surprised to see an adult and juvenile fox climbing up the slope about ten feet from the back deck. The gray fox was a little larger than a cat or small dog, with a compact body, short legs, and a long tail.
As I watched them, two more young foxes scrambled out from under our deck and began chasing each other and tumbling around together. Mother fox seemed to be encouraging her young brood to keep moving as she led them up the hill, just stopping to sniff at a hole. Four foxes in one place! I looked for my phone to get a video, but the quick-moving fox family headed for forest cover, and I decided I'd better watch instead. One lone youngster chose to follow his nose and explore over to my neighbor's garden area, where he finally ducked under a fence and disappeared, his gray and brown fur a perfect camouflage for the duff and branches of the forest floor.
In mythology, the fox is a symbol of cunning, intelligence, and trickery. In reality, the gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) around here are curious and resourceful. They seem comfortable skirting around people's houses, looking for water sources, hunting mice and other rodents, even earthworms. They are omnivorous eaters and also enjoy berries, acorns, edible plants, and even mushrooms.
The video below shows two gray foxes being curious.
A nap during the golden hour
A while back, I saw a chubby vixen fox several times behind our house. She might have been eating pet food left out or people’s food scraps, or maybe she was pregnant. One early summer evening, while we were having dinner, she decided to curl up in a warm spot of sun on our upper slope and take a nap about twenty feet from the house. We watched her sleep in full view of our dining room slider door, and I worried she might be ill. It seemed like unusual behavior to sleep with people visible nearby. After about 30 minutes, she rose, stretched, and meandered off, apparently fine after her doze.
As long as you aren't noisy or aggressive around them, Gray foxes may visit homes to sleep on a wooden deck, drink from a bird bath, take shelter in a woodpile or even raise their kits under a backyard shed.
Jon Hammond for Tehachapi News
The gray fox is sometimes called the "cat fox" for its ability to climb high and its hunting skills.
The gray fox is specifically adapted to climb trees. Its strong, hooked claws allow it to scramble up trees to escape many predators, such as the domestic dog or the coyote, or to reach tree-bound or arboreal food sources. It can climb branchless, vertical trunks to heights of 18 meters and jump from branch to branch.
Wikipedia/ Gray fox
I've had glimpses of foxes as I walk the neighborhood. One encounter at my home was especially memorable during the early months of the pandemic when home quarantine was the norm, and the world had shrunk down to a small rectangle confined within walls. The news was full of daily death counts across the land. With this backdrop of fear and uncertainty, many people sought refuge in nature. I spent more time on my porch, surrounded by columns of tall redwoods. The bonus was seeing more birds and wildlife.
May I share your snack?
One day, I stepped onto the front porch with a handful of walnuts to eat. A movement caught my eye as I looked down the hill over the trees and listened to the far-away bark of noisy sea lions.
A gray fox came around the side of the house and followed the stone path that led to the raised porch where I was standing. Its bushy tail was almost as long as its body. I froze, riveted by the closeness of a wild animal, but it kept walking until it stood at the base of the steps a dozen feet away, looking up at me in apparent surprise. We stared at each other for several seconds, and then I tossed a walnut piece down. The fox sniffed it and eagerly ate it, then looked at me as if to say, "more?" I had two pieces left and threw them down one by one. After eating them, it cast a last look at me, then glided down the road and disappeared into the trees. I felt rejuvenated from the encounter, a wild fox spirit letting me know that life would go on.
Foxes are models of adaptability and canny survival skills. The fox near my house had to make a rapid decision— to balance the fear and peril of being near a human with the possible opportunity for food or other benefits. How many of us, faced with a potentially dangerous situation, could make the imaginative leap that something good could possibly come from a novel experience?
Foxes use their intuition, physical skills, and rapid reflexes to solve problems as they arise. These admirable qualities are one reason they’ve been the focus of myth and storytelling across cultures and ages.
The fox embodies attributes we need more than ever now: adaptability, ingenuity, boldness, and persistence. I like to think that if we were to follow their lead, adding a keen attention to our natural surroundings, we could co-create a world that lasts for all.
Robin Applegarth
I like to hear from readers. Our society believes in human exceptionalism—that we are the “top” of the pyramid of life. Do you think we can learn things from other creatures such as foxes who have a different type of intelligence?
You can comment at the button above, respond to this email to reach me privately, or reach out on Twitter @RobinApplegarth.
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I so enjoyed reading your encounters with foxes, especially sharing your walnuts with one. I also learned a great deal about these beautiful, wild canines; a favorite forest dweller of mine. They do, indeed, embody many of the qualities and attributes needed by our species as well.
Thank you, Robin!