We finally saw the foxes! Jessica and I went to watch the den early this morning. After 3 previous unsuccessful attempts at seeing the foxes at various other times of the day, I was confident that being there first thing in the morning would give us the best chance. This time of year that means getting up pretty early. We left the house at 5:00 AM so we could be at the den in time for sunrise. We arrived at 5:40 and right away before we had even stopped the truck Jessica noticed one of the kits peeking out of the den. She only saw him for an instant. We waited maybe 5 minutes then he came out again and this time walked around a little bit. This was before either of the adults had come around. After 2 or 3 minutes the kit went back into the den and there was no activity for quite a while.
About 30 to 40 minutes later dad showed up with a piece of meat. We couldn't tell what sort of animal the meat was from, since it was just a hunk of flesh, but when he showed up two kits came running out of the den to grab the food. We only saw 2 kits, so that makes this a small litter unless there had already been others that didn't survive. For the next 45 minutes both kits were in and out of the den, chasing each other and playing. 4 times dad brought in pieces of food for them. The last time he came in with food, it was a huge rabbit. It still had all 4 legs attached, but it looked like the rump had been chewed off. The more aggressive of the two kits chased the other one away from the rabbit, then proceeded to tug at the meat and try almost unsuccessfully to drag the rabbit into the den by himself. At first he couldn't budge it but after several tugs managed to pull it inside the den. Once the rabbit and both kits were back in the den, dad took off for another round of hunting. We ended up with about a 45 minute show of fox activity. It sure was a fun way to start the day!
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