Red Fox

We've been enjoying views of our local Red Fox for about the last year.  We must have one territorial pair, because they romp around in our fields with a lot of confidence, curling up for naps even out in the open. (We see only one at a time, though.) We've watched them mousing in the snowy fields. Today (late November), we watched the fox in a showdown with three White-tailed Deer.  The deer approached, stared, and the fox got up from its nap, stretched, and trotted off, after the deer passed within about 30 yards or so. Neither poses a real threat to the other.

Just like a canine, circling before settling in for a nap.

There's a bit of controversy surrounding the Red Fox that I find interesting. Some authorities (e.g. Vermont Fish and Wildlife) consider the creature to be introduced. The Gray Fox, smaller and more delicate (amazingly, a tree climber), and likely more stealthy, is native to the area. The motivation  for the introduction was to provide an animal exciting to hunt; so people experienced in hunting Red Foxes in Great Britain pushed to have them wandering the Vermont forests and fields.

The story seems logical, but leaves me with some doubt. As with birds, how much do we really know about pre-settlement wildlife? The early settlers didn't keep extensive records of what they saw: they were, understandably, preoccupied with surviving in an unforgiving landscape. They blasted away at wildlife for meat. The animals easy to find were the first to fall victim to human hunger. Is it possible the the Red Fox was here and then extirpated by settlers? (It could have suffered a range retraction to the north and west, where it graces the landscape today.) Today, the Red Fox seems so comfortable in its Vermont surroundings that one wonders if it has a niche, after all. It seems at least remotely possible that the "reintroduction" simply expanded on a natural recolonization of formerly occupied habitat.