Vacant Den Claimed By Foxes (Trail Cam Results)

Bored, on a mild Tuesday afternoon, I took a walk to the "Pine Grove" (a forest near the intersection of Water St, Potter Rd.) I went there because I hadn't checked on it in a while, and i didn't want to miss anything. I'm so glad I went, because I found a couple really cool things. There were deer and fox tracks everywhere, different from the usual coyote dominated landscape. some crossed over the path, some followed the path, some left chaotic masses of tracks, probably as they smelled something under the snow, and stopped to dig at it or investigate. I decided to walk by the site of the den that had seen no activity all year. I had thought it was vacant, as the entry hole was packed with leaves.

                                                   Today proved that things had changed...

 

This is how it looked exactly 3 months ago, on 

December 1st...

Notice the leaves stuffed into the entry hole, 

and the moss that is growing on the mound. 

You can see how it looked abandoned to me:

 

...So of course I decided to leave my trail camera there. There is a fallen, dead big-tooth aspen tree that hangs conveniently over the den entrance. you can see it in the images above. I used the cord that came with the camera to fasten it to the trunk, with the camera hanging, giving a bird's eye view of the mound. The camera was left there, to take videos whenever there is motion on March 1st. I hope my tracks in the snow won't spook the parents into moving out, but I think it's very unlikely.

I wasn't 100% sure if the tracks were from coyotes, or foxes. I think the den was originally used by a coyote because it matches the characteristics of a coyote den. Fox dens typically have multiple entrances, while this only has one.

It turned out to be another fox den! Here are the best videos from the setup

The Saxonville families territory must border this one. I think I've just found their rivals. Maybe these foxes are the old families offspring. Maybe they just migrated from across Boston Post Road, in Sudbury. I've gotten messages about there being fox dens in that area on Nextdoor.com. I doubted it at first, knowing how the area is dominated by coyotes, the red foxes only natural predator. Eastern coyotes will kill any fox they can catch, and will raid dens full of kits, killing the litter. Both of these are done to eliminate competition for dens, and food.

I am going to try my best to document and film the litters of both families, and I am working to find where the border between territories is. This should be interesting.