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No henhouses in the Back Bay, so this yard will have to do

Fox in the Back Bay

Adrienne reports spotting this fox in a yard on the outbound side of Comm. Ave. near Mass. Ave. this morning.

For the record I did not ask it ANYTHING.

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Comments

OMG that's my building! I had foxes??

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Adrienne writes:

gone when I got back but prob will spend rest of day moving from block to block every 2hrs w/no resident sticker

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What does the fox say?

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Cute bugger.

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That looks more like the local Coyote/wolf mixes.

The local foxes are typically 7-12 lbs, 15 tops. I can't tell for sure how big that dog is, though, because I'm not sure how tall that fence is. Also, foxes have more "catdog" faces with larger ears, in addition to being cat-sized, and their fur and markings are rather different.

http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dfg/dfw/wildlife/wildlife-living/living-wit...
http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dfg/dfw/wildlife/wildlife-living/living-wit...

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That's a short fence, so it's definitely fox-size. This guy appears to have a winter coat still. Not saying you're wrong, but it's more likely a fox.

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The tail seems too bushy and full to me to be a coyote tail, and the red too red. But I don't have a lot of experience with coyote/wolf mixes.

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That's no wolf-hybrid.

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but I can tell you without certainty that the picture is of a grey fox. Larger ears have nothing to do with it.

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I've seen animals like that out here in the boonies and I was pretty embarrassed to say that I wasn't sure if it was a coyote or a fox. The coloring is all over the place and they seemed bigger than the foxes I've seen, so I ended up calling them coyotes. When I saw the pic in the post, again I wasn't sure.
I'd love to know.

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helps to clarify the visual difference--coyotes are bigger and generally have a much leggier, dog/wolf look whereas foxes are smaller, lower, more catlike and nimble-looking and of course with the grand tail.

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matches that little cat-dog perfectly! Look at that foxy little face!

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If that is indeed a short fence, then it must be a fox. Coyotes pups look like pups and don't stray too far from mom at that size.

I had a red fox hanging out in my yard for a couple of years - they are more distinctly not coyote.

I remember that she ended up face-to-face with my 15lb alpha cat in the grass. They were about the same size. They looked each other over for a time, without animosity, and then both turned around simultaneously and went in opposite directions like it never happened.

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A gray fox to be precise.

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Impressive! I had no idea foxes were roaming around the city.

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I've seen two foxes in Cambridge in the last 6 months. Really, last autumn. They evidently have a territory of about a 1/4 mile and as the young adult males come of age, they need to roam away from their family group's territory to find their own (usually in the fall). They are quite evidently now in the city proper. But London has scads of them so...

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On a quiet part of Chestnut Ave near where it backs onto Parley Vale. It crossed the street right in front of us and then scaled a four foot wall and disappeared into the woods. We were startled but we both said "fox"--it was distinctly not a coyote--and when we got home and looked it up, our guess was confirmed. Really lovely little animal and no--I had no idea they were in the city.

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I used to live on Mass Ave just a block from what is now the Boston Medical Center. There were foxes around. Of course, there were also a lot more empty lots in that neighborhood back then.

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We had one in Cleveland Circle about a year ago. Close to the reservoir, but on the residential side.

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There is a pair of foxes around Ringer Park that I've seen from time to time. Sometimes wandering through the park at dust, another time they tried to approach a cat on Ridgemont and were quickly rebuffed by said cat.

What with all the rats there, there's a lot to eat!

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Either the monied classes are donning jackets for a hunt or they deliberately imported this fox to defend themselves from the bunny horde and impeding turkey invasion.

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That may indeed be what brought this critter in.

We had a red fox in our neighborhood in Medford for a couple of years. She negotiated with the neighborhood dogs by vocal exchanges, and completely satisfied Rule 7 of Cuteness by bringing her kits to our yard to nibble on raspberries.

She, too, appeared in the wake of a rabbit population explosion.

I agree that this guy is possibly a gray fox - they are leggier than the red ones and have smaller ears and different markings.

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If he challenges you to a game of tug-of-war, just smile, and walk away. The fox would most certainly win.

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Cute lil' bugger too

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We've spotted a fox like this a couple of times on our street in JP (at least half a mile from either the Arboretum or Franklin Park). Foxes aren't solitary, right? So where you see one, there are probably more, unless these are young males out on their own.

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Except for when I saw mom and the kids, I've only seen one fox at a time - never more.

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it's not ok to pet him because he looks 'cute'; he's a wild animal, not a cartoon character.

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Hope this guy finds out there are plenty of tasty rabbits in the Fens!

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Don't tell the Turkey Liberation Front that they add Turkeys in as an additional fox food variable at the end of this problem. S/He seems to have enough issues with humans. If he has to fight a two front war against the wily fox AND us, his feathers will explode.

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There's now a supposedly nasty mute swan in the Fens as well.

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Just checked my Peterson Field Guide fo Mammals of North America, page 101. If you see the illustration, no question about it.

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My father (in Illinois) once had a fox den (?) under his porch. Never seen one here.

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deleted

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Okay, scale plus tail ... no doubts now! Also appears to be a female.

Here's a Red Fox (not Redd Foxx) for comparison:

IMAGE(http://www.stephenoachs.com/photos/slideshow/ss-red-fox.jpg)

I had one of these hanging around my yard for a couple years.

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