Urgent - Would like some advice

Jem

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So this morning I woke up and there is a fox curled up under one of my trees in the back yard. I opened the back sliding doors to see if I could get a reaction and to see if it was passed. The cutie pie, looked back at me for a few seconds and put its head back down. So now I know it's alive :). My husband took a cautious walk around the opposite side of the yard, and the little guy just looked up at him but stayed put. It's not acting injured per se or that is has rabies, but the fact that it doesn't run away worries me. But it could simply be used to people if it's been hanging around the neighborhood this year.
My husband and I decided that we would keep an eye on it, as it could have just been passing thru and taking a rest. (We get a lot of wild life around here)
But it's been 3 hours since I saw it and it's still there. What worries me is that at one point I went to peak at it and at first I thought it was gone, until I realized it was walking around a bit around the back of the tree partially out of view. At that point a huge black bird swooped down and then flew off. It must have been a raven, they can get pretty big around here. When the bird flew off the fox went back to his resting spot, curled up and laid down again. When I saw it walking around the tree it did not look injured, it's walking seemed fine, maybe a little slow but it only had to take a few steps, and it looks healthy enough. I worry that it chose my back yard as a safe place to pass away. We have a wild life charity in my area that we will call, I'm just not sure how much time I should give.
What do you think?
 

FeebysOwner

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I think calling sooner rather than later would be appropriate. If the charity will check him over to see if something is wrong - and, there is - then getting treatment quicker would give the fox a better chance.
 

HUDSONPAT

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Seems like odd behavior...I would not approach. Call the county; sad to say, sounds like a raccoon that was rabid. Here in Florida, rabies is ongoing issue.
 

Kieka

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I'd call the wildlife center. He could just have a cold or mild injury and is looking for a safe place to recover or it could be something more serious. Either way the wildlife center would give him the best chance to recover.
 
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Jem

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Well I just got off the phone with the wild life refuge, and she said that what I described was very common in our area. She said that in the winter they like to curl up under trees to stay warm, and will usually not be bothered by us or run away if we keep our distances (which we did of course).
She said that I could try to startle it to see if it would run if I was worried about it being in my yard. She said that if with intervention it still did not leave to call them back. As I was on the phone with her, a squirrel ran by which got it's attention. The fox perked right up, stood up, and it looked to be in good shape, and nice thick fur. It then sat nice and proud, had a big stretch, then all of a sudden took off into my hedges.
My god they are beautiful creatures aren't they?
I'll still keep a look out for him, but I think the refuge lady was right, it was just trying to stay warm, and found a safe haven in my yard.

We've had many creature make our yard their home, We have a long standing resident partridge in our hedge (we didn't see him this year though :( ), Had a family of bunnies under our shed, a bear who likes to poop on our front yard, after eating the apples form our neighbors yard :rolleyes3:. We have 2 resident squirrels and a resident chipmunk. Many nests of robins, woodpeckers, blue jays and finch. And I've seen raccoons, porcupines and skunks pass thru. I often hear coyotes in the near distance as well. Now I can add a fox to my list of animals!

Anyway thanks for the responses everyone, but it seems we are all good here, yay!
 

neely

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I just got off the phone with the wild life refuge, and she said that what I described was very common in our area. She said that in the winter they like to curl up under trees to stay warm, and will usually not be bothered by us or run away if we keep our distances (which we did of course).
We see foxes in our area also. In fact, a friend who lives three blocks away had a mother fox and babies in her yard one year. We see them a lot in the field of a nearby school. The school is surrounded by big evergreens which is where you can usually see them and would go along with what the wildlife refuge lady told you about how they curl up under trees to stay warm this time of year. And, yes,
they are definitely beautiful creatures.
 
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Jem

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Well, it's back in it's little nest. I didn't rake this fall so there is a lot of "insulation" from the fallen pine needles around the bases of my trees. Our one squirrel is non too happy right now though, he's chirping up a storm at our little intruder.
Does anyone know how to differentiate between male and female foxes? It's a red fox. Now that I know it's healthy, and if it's going to stick around, even for just the day, it needs a name. :)
And don't worry, we'll still be keeping an eye on it and it's behavior. Our cats don't seem bothered by it being here and they have seen it. If at any point something seems amiss, I will call the wild animal refuge again. And NO I will NOT feed it, I'm just letting it do it's thing.
 

neely

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Does anyone know how to differentiate between male and female foxes?
I don't think you can determine the sex of a fox from a distance. The obvious differentiation would be to see it's genitals but that's unlikely to happen. ;) Males tend to have a larger frame and skull than females. The other difference might be in a male's behavior, i.e. act more aggressive and/or mark his territory with urine. Other than that, I hope he or she has found a safe haven in your yard.:heartshape:
 

catapault

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Use a name that's good for either male or female like Leslie

Or names that sound similar but are spelled differently

Sydney / Sidney

Frances / Francis

Adrienne / Adrian
 

Maria Bayote

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I just envy those who live around wildlife. :(
Must be very exciting to look out the window every morning to check what kind of animal is out there lurking, hovering or resting about. :)
 
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Jem

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It left around 3 in the afternoon yesterday, and my husband said he didn't see it all evening/night (I was at work). But this morning it's back, curled up under the same tree.

What do you all think of the name Poppy? This fox showed up on Remembrance day and it is a red fox. It's more of a female name but IDK, do you think it fits if it's a male too? TBH, I don't think the fox cares what we call it really....:rolleyes2:

After reading up on foxes, I think it's less than a year old, and has probably recently left it's family. Usually they live in small families of about 4 adults, but this little one is alone so maybe it hasn't found it's "pack" yet. Winter is mating season and they usually give birth in March. Because it's mating season in winter, the males "bits" are more noticeable so I might get out by binoculars and to a little voyeurism :blush:, and see if I can see them "hanging around". Now is probably the best time to try and sexe our fox. The obvious would be if we have a female and all of a sudden a bunch of babies running around, but I don't want to wait till march. And I honestly don't think it's a good idea if this fox makes my yard a permanent home. I'm happy to let it stay and keep warm and safe, but I do live in a neighborhood so it's probably not the safest for the long run.
 
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Jem

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Must be very exciting to look out the window every morning to check what kind of animal is out there lurking, hovering or resting about.
It's great to see, until you have to shovel bear poop off your lawn! :rolleyes3: :lol:
 

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We have had foxes run through our yard, but never stay. Being on the edge of a protected wet land we have lots of other critters pass through. The most recent (and unwelcome) is a female coyote. We have had deer, moose, racoons, skunks, possums, squirrel, chipmunks, a LARGE family of buunies, a fisher cat, ground hogs, assorted birds such as bald eagle, red tailed hawk, wood ****, and various songbirds. No bear that I know of thank goodness! I leave them alone since it is difficult for them with humans encroaching on their lands.
 

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We have comical coveys of quail which troop back and forth in single file... rabbits, feral cats and coyotes (unfortunately), but there isn't much we can do about the coyotes, they use a sandy wash to infiltrate the neighborhood once human activity dies down. With my feeders in the yard, we get all kinds of wild birds, I just added more suet to those particular feeders to keep the birds coming, the cats love to watch the birds at the feeders, LOL. Haven't seen any foxes yet, but I'm not ruling them out, since this is southeastern Arizona and there are heaps of critters here. Oh, yeah, we have pack rats and skunks too, though not many on my hill as far as I know. I evicted one pack rat who was living under my home, took two months to trap him... I gave him a limo ride to the outskirts of town and let him go in a field with brush and a fallen log and whatnot. He skedaddled into that brush too, probably gave him protection from raptors, which can get pretty big around here. My parting words to the rodent: "Go be a pack rat... just don't do it under my house!!!" :eek2:
 

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Here are some shots of the waterfowl which hang out in the reclamation pond right near our maintenance shop on the golf course... this pond doesn't reek or anything, the water has already been treated, it's just a reservoir for the course. The birds love it, but if I walk too close to the fence all the birds on the near side and shore of the pond will quickly move away... they don't know I'm friendly, LOL.

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Here's another shot of that tree, it's pretty cool, LOL. We also have a small grove of trees west of the shed where barn kitty MuuMuu likes to cruise, you can see the grove beyond this 5-reel mower we're currently working on, the mower gets a new engine in the near future. It's one heck of a mower too, it cuts a wide swath with those 5 reels, LOL.

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Guess ya can't tell from these photos, but there are two more reels further aft (so to speak) which pick up the areas missed by the three front reels. It's a radical mower, my coworkers call it "The Beast" because it gets the fairways done pronto, LOL. There are smaller mowers for the tee boxes and greens, this big ol' mower would probably damage the greens if it were used, solely due to its weight. :eek2:

P.S. You can see all the open space around our shop, makes for a nice peaceful location... we get birdwatchers down by this pond, most of them have big ol' binoculars and cameras with huge lenses, LOL. :camera:
 
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