Texas Parks and Wildlife doesn't actually track the ebb and flow of fox populations but wildlife biologists have spotted enough foxes to know that the little canids' numbers are healthy. Wildlife biologist Der rick Wolter with the Temple of fice of the parks and wildlife department says he has seen plenty of them during his three years in Bell County.
'I've been surprised to see so many,' he said Thursday. 'This time of year you might see them more often because conditions are a little tougher. They have to forage more. They have high metabolisms and their food intake is higher.'
Despite some isolated sightings of red foxes, the most like ly fox to see in these parts is its smaller cousin, the gray fox. As its name suggests, it is predominantly gray, though you can catch a flash of white on its throat and belly and some black stripes on its tail. It lacks the white-tipped tail sported by the red fox.
The gray fox, unlike the red, is a native. Also unlike the red fox, gray foxes don't cooperate with fox hunters. Dismayed early settlers found this out when they attempted to transplant the English sport of fox hunting with hounds to the New World. The gray fox simply didn't have time for such shenanigans.
Len McDougal, in his book The Complete Tracker
, writes that the gray fox didn't play fair, at least not by Old World standards.
'Unique among canines, North America's gray fox can and usually does climb trees to escape pursuit, which made for a short chase in untamed wilderness,' McDougal writes. 'Such impudence from a fox was intolerable, and in the mid-1700s red foxes were shipped over from England to remedy the situation. The English immigrants found the New World to their liking and promptly escaped into the wild, where they have been thriving ever since.'
As wild, four-legged critters go the fox is fairly benign. Forget the cliched 'fox in the hen house' image. Foxes got the reputation for raiding hen houses primarily because they are not very good at it. A study of the dining habits of 42 gray foxes found that only one had eaten a chicken. They are more likely to make a meal out of fruits, nuts, berries and the occasional vegetable. They also like rabbits, rodents and birds. Basically, a fox is usually hungry for whatever is readily available.
'Foxes lack the manual dexterity needed to cope with the intricacies of chicken wire and latches and frequently got caught in the act, while more successful chicken thieves, such as weasels and (especially) raccoons, were seldom seen,' McDougal wrote.
The fact that foxes seem to be thriving could be an indication that coyote numbers are being held somewhat in check. The book The Mammals of Texas
suggests just that. A paragraph on the section devoted to gray foxes reads:
'Of some interest is the possible relationship between gray foxes and coyotes. In sections of Texas where coyotes were formerly numerous, the gray fox is scarce; now, after elimination of the coyote, the gray fox has become abundant. Perhaps the coyote tends to hold this fox in check under conditions where they both occupy the same area.'
The coyote is stronger and faster than the fox, but the gray fox has a trick up its sleeve that can frustrate a coyote as much as it did those early fox hunters: the gray fox can and does climb trees by hooking its strongly curved claws into the tree bark and moving upward and onward.
While a sloping tree trunk is an obvious aid, the gray fox can climb a tree that grows 90 degrees straight up without any problem.
Some gray foxes are so fond of trees that they might choose to live in one, as did an East Texas fox that made its den in a hollow oak tree some 30 feet off the ground. A Central Texas fox was found doing the same thing, though the entrance to its den was only about three feet above ground. They may not be as sly as the old stories suggest, but they are adaptable.
A gray fox generally lives about 6-10 years in the wild. Coyotes take some, and so do bobcats and humans. But the primary threat to gray foxes seems to come from rabies, to which they are susceptible.
'Rabies and fleas,' says Bell County trapper Gary Silvers. 'That's their main problems.'
Silvers just returned from the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas, where gray foxes are especially abundant, as part of a project designed to inoculate the foxes against rabies.
The project is headed by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The oral vaccination program immunizes gray foxes against rabies by dropping some 2.2 million-dog food baits containing an oral rabies vaccine from an airplane. The program covers some 23 West Central Texas counties.
'The whole idea is to slow the move of rabies coming in from Mexico,' Silvers said. 'It seems to be working pretty well.'
The program could have implications for Central Texas foxes too. In 2002 an 11-year old Temple boy was bitten by a fox in broad daylight on South General Bruce Drive. The boy had to endure some rabies shots, but otherwise survived with little more than a sore finger.
While incidents like that are rare, sightings are becoming less so.
Some of the best places to spot a fox around here are in areas around Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow Lake as well as Mother Neff State Park and Colorado Bend State Park.
While you're trying to spot a fox, don't forget to let your gaze wander into the trees as well. Truth is, you may not see a fox but there's a better chance that a fox will see you.
