Welcome Fox

 I know an old lady who swallowed a Fox, my that's outside of the box! She swallowed the fox to catch the mouse, I don't know why she swallowed the mouse, perhaps she'll die. I know an old lady who swallowed a coyote, how quixote! She swallowed the coyote to catch the fox. She swallowed the fox to catch the mouse. I don't know why she swallowed the mouse, perhaps she'll die. There was an old lady who swallowed a tick, ick!  

photograph by Alexander Andrews

When Ginny howls wolf at the window, you will find me lining myself up behind her getting low to look at the exact spot that caused her to howl. Luna positions herself at our side letting out an ear splitting racket. As anyone who walks past our house knows, Luna pulls the fire alarm at everything that moves. This spring she caused a five bike pile up when the lead biker stopped in his tracks upon hearing the hounds. Ginny yaps at passers bye, especially children on wheels, chipmunks and other dogs; but she reserves her howl for Toby the neighborhood cat, saxophones and other villains like fox.

So it was one morning all heck broke loose causing Wayne a near heart attack though he was down in the basement. With all of the hysterics going on behind the glass, the fox paused and looked directly at us. It was a miserable looking creature with barely a hair left on her tail. After a good look at us, she trotted across the road and down into the woods. I say she because mid March is the time of year when fox move in near our homes to have their pups which emerge in April.* They won't stay long, so keep an eye out. 

It's thought that the reason a she fox or vixen dens up under our porches, sheds and in our culverts is not to take advantage of our domestic pets; but rather to find a measure of safety from wildlife competitors and predators. The coyote is predominantly a resource competitor with the fox and they will eliminate fox and their kits when food resources are scarce.** Human created land pressure has decreased available territory and so coyotes and fox have learned to adapt to our environment. In truth, the fox is a solitary animal which would much prefer to be as far away from humans and coyotes as possible. 

There was a time in VT when the Gray Wolf was top Canid and the coyote was nowhere to be found. However, when the wolf became extinct in VT by the late 1800s due to habitat clearing and a twenty dollar a hide bounty to protect livestock, the coyote moved in.*** This story of habitat competitors reminds me of watching plovers as I walk along the ocean shore. When the wave rolls onto the shore, the birds retreat to dryer sand; but when the wave draws back into the ocean, the tiny birds rush towards the ocean searching for food. When we introduce people walking on the beach, the little birds get pushed further down the beach while they run to and from the ocean. 

So why have I taken liberties with Rose Bonne's classic about an old lady? Because when we humans begin to see predators in our backyards, we tend to find ways to drive them out and that may not be to our best advantage. While it's true that a sick fox or a few dead Rhode Island Reds might rightfully so raise alarm, what we should really be concerned about is having no fox at all. This is where the lowly tick comes in. We have all learned to fall in love with that homely tick eating Marsupial the Opossum because we see them as providing us with a no cost service. What if I were to tell you that the fox plays an important role in controlling Lyme Disease too?

"White-footed mice are the principal natural reservoirs for Lyme disease bacteria. Ticks that feed on mice are highly likely to become infected, making them capable of transmitting Lyme disease to people during their next blood meal"****

While it's true that Canids and other animals carry Borrelia, only about ten percent of ticks become infected with the bacteria from feeding on coyote, fox, deer, racoons, possums and birds. We associate Lyme infection with these animals because ticks hitch rides on them.  White footed mice infect ticks ninety percent of the time and a fox can eat five thousand mice a year.**** It makes sense that the fewer the mice the lower the infection and in fact research seems to supports it. In an area where there are less coyotes, there are more fox resulting in fewer mice and therefor fewer infected ticks.*****

 It turns out that biodiversity is a pretty good tool for preventing disease while eradication of a species creates more complications. It also turns out that given enough food resources, fox will cohabitate with coyote with little conflict and the same goes with fox and domestic animals.***** Speaking of other food sources, mice populations are also impacted by other factors besides fox predation, for example a variation in their own food availability as well as the fact that there are many more predators of mice than fox. 

As for those Rhode Island Reds, VT Fish and Wildlife recommends that electric fencing and proper feed management to reduce your losses. -Norma Manning

Resources:

*Discover Wildlife, A Year in the Life of an Urban fox

**Smithsonian Magazine, Foxes and Coyotes are Natural Enemies or are they?

***Stowe Reporter, Not Crying Wolf

****Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Lyme Disease 

*****Cary Institute, Fox and coyote and ticks -oh my

Further reading:

Furbearer Conservation, A Tale of Two Reds: Old-world Versus New-world Red Fox