Hello Folks,
It has been a while since I posted my first entry. As you can imagine, I started to feel guilty for not posting anything new. Sorry folks but I was waiting for something good!
Here it is! On my way to work I often see wildlife darting in-and-out of the forest edge. For over a year now my students and I have been setting cameras but haven't quite been able to get a great shot of the quiz animal (see last blog). For the last couple of months I have repeatedly seen two beautiful red tails zipping in around the park. It didn't take us very long to figure out the tails belonged to a pair of red fox (Vulpes vulpes). We thought they might have a den near by but I wasn't sure how close.
It wasn't until I decided to throw a BBQ for a friend of mine that was able to figure it out the location of the den. It was the day before the big event and I decided to take a peek at the two weathered grills, one for vegetarians and one for us carnivores. As I walked outside I was hit smack dab in the middle of my nose by the most foul smelling odor. It was the skeletal remains of an opossum which had reached its peak aroma in the warm moist air. I figured the owner was either offering it up for the BBQ or had gotten tired of the smell.
One of my colleagues suggested that it had probably been a roadkill from the Parkway that had been dragged up for lite fare. After I used a stick to chuck it back into the woods (we had plenty of veggieburgers) my colleauges and I decided to set up a camera close by the original site of the carcasss.
Low and behold our good fortune!
Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)
