A couple of fox families have taken up residence in a groundhog den in the ground inside and under our shops in Tennessee. They had a den elsewhere and moved the kits to our shop a few days before the first videos were taken. We do not interfere with them in any way except for the trail cameras. We do not try to interact with them or feed them, as habituating them to humans may risk their lives.
Foxes change dens for multiple reasons. They may be trying to escape parasites (fleas, lice, mites, flies, etc). They have to hunt day and night to feed their growing family, so moving allows them to find more food in a new location. They may move do to human or coyote activity. Coyotes will not kill them for food, but because they compete for the same food sources.
A female red fox is called a vixen. The male is a todd. The babies are kits. Red foxes are not much bigger than a large house cat. Both the vixen and todd protect and care for the young, although the todd is often gone most of the time hunting, bringing back killed prey, and the vixen does more of the grooming of the kits. The vixen will leave the kits more frequently to hunt as the kits get older.
There are at least two females and one male with this group of kits. Red foxes will share a den, either with one male and two females, or two pair. Since they are difficult to tell apart, I am not sure yet how many adults are denning together.
Turn up the sound on my videos. Many include fox vocalizations. They have many different sounds that convey different information. There are sounds to alert the kits to dive into a den to avoid danger. They will bark at coyotes and other threats. The female will submissively posture to the male and whine at him. Both parents will make particular noises when they approach the den with food. There are noises for when one fox is looking for others.
I am not a fox expert by any means, but have learned a lot from observing the foxes on our property and reading up on them. This is the second year of observation as we had a family of foxes den here last year for 10 days. The cameras used are Browning Spec Ops Extreme, Browning Spec Ops Advantage, and Foxelli Oak's Eye I and II. The cams used by the dens are no-glow cams to avoid scaring the foxes in any way.
