| May 4, 2006
Howdy friends. Time for another Creature Feature. The main plug today is for my new show opening at Creature Gallery tomorrow night (Friday). It's a Mother's Day Tribute: Wildlife Babies & Their Mothers. There will of course be plenty of food and beverage free for the taking. I even aquired a case of Corona last night. You better come drink it cause I'm not that big of a beer fan. But free beer isn't the only reason to come to Creature Gallery. There will also be more than 40 images of absolutely adorable, cute and cuddly baby critters from around the world, and the moms that made it happen. So honor your mother and bring her to Creature. Without her, you wouldn't be here. (I'll also be open on the actual mother's day which is Sunday the 14th.)
Speaking of babies, a few days ago I got a call from my friend Bill who told me that he spotted a fox den next door to his house here in Charlottesville. I went over Sunday evening to check them out and whaddya know...
This week's featured creature is:
the Red Fox
( Vulpes vulpes )
Holy cow, have you ever seen anything so adorable? I have to say, this was one of the greatest wildlife moments in my whole life. I crept up to about 100 feet from the den and sat and watched for two hours as these tiny foxes romped and played and napped in the golden light of the setting sun.
Here's your quiz for the day:
What do you call baby foxes?
a) Pups
b) Kits
c) Cubs
d) Wookees
Here's a hint. It was the name of Knight Rider's talking car. Yep, they're called Kits, which seems pretty appropriate. They look more like kittens than puppies at this age. (about one month old)So there are 5 kits at this den. The den is an abandoned woodchuck hole in the middle of a grassy pasture. When I arrived, there were no adults in sight. The kits were just wandering around and goofing off, never traveling more than about 20 feet from the den. Mostly they napped, but every once in a while they would sit up to look around for mama or pounce on each other. They didn't seem terribly concerned with my presence. If I moved, they would sometimes look my way but as soon as I held still I was no longer of any interest to them. One time they made cute little yapping sounds at me, but quickly got bored and went back to their shenanigans. Another exciting moment occurred when two very noisy Canada Geese flew directly over the den at low altitude. The kits were terrified and dove into the den! Three seconds later they all popped up to see what the heck happened. Then, about one hour before sunset, one of the adults came trotting across the field. Since I have no idea whether it was the male or the female (both will care for the kits) lets just assume it was mom (in honor of mother's day.) So Mom pops over the crest of a ridge next to the den, carrying some fat little rodent in her mouth (stopped at the drive-thru on the way home) and freezes when she spots me. You can see in this photo that she has a somewhat ticked-off look in her eyes.
"what the #$%@ is going on here?"
So I decided it was time for me to get the heck out of there and let her feed her babies. Coincidentally, the den resides on the property of a very famous local photographer by the name of Robert LLewellyn. He's done a bunch of books and has shot for some magazine called National Geographic (not familiar with it personally.) Many thanks to Bob and Bill for letting me view the foxes. What a treat.
Interesting Red Fox fact:
The Red Fox is the most widely distributed carnivore in the whole world. You can find them virtually anywhere in the northern hemisphere. In fact, besides humans, it has the largest natural range of any mammal on the planet!
Thanks so much for reading and have a great week ladies and gents.
-Hal
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