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

By adamg on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 11:16am
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.

Neighborhoods: 
Back Bay
Free tagging: 
Wildlife
foxes
Commonwealth Avenue


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Comments

By gotdatwmd on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 11:20am.

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

By adamg on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 11:48am.

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

By Kaz on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 11:38am.

What does the fox say?

By anon on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:55pm.

Cute bugger.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 11:59am.

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...

By gotdatwmd on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:01pm.

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.

By jennied on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:34pm.

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.

By Biggie_Robs on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:51pm.

That's no wolf-hybrid.

By Steve O on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:16pm.

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

By merlinmurph on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:37pm.

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.

By Sally on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:13pm.

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.

By Sally on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:07pm.

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

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:19pm.

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.

By anon on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 2:59pm.

A gray fox to be precise.

By anon on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:08pm.

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

By Sharon on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:26pm.

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...

By Sally on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:59pm.

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.

By Jeff F on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:44pm.

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.

By Lando on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 5:21pm.

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

By King.of.Brighton on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 12:32pm.

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!

By anon on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:09pm.

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.

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:11pm.

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.

By anon on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:38pm.

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

By polarbare on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:41pm.

Cute lil' bugger too

By Hillary on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 12:57pm.

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.

By merlinmurph on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:38pm.

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

By anon on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:40pm.

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

By Calli on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 2:52pm.

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

By SwirlyGrrl on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 3:58pm.

http://www4.ncsu.edu/eos/users/w/white/www/white/ma302/less708.pdf

By Stevil on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 4:27pm.

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.

By Calli on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 5:40pm.

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

By adamg on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 6:13pm.

Swan right here.

By A. Nony. Fox on Wed, 04/02/2014 - 9:26pm.

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

By adamg on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 12:39pm.

http://imgur.com/a/CZQEG

By Michael Kerpan on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 12:52pm.

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

By Michael Kerpan on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 2:16pm.

deleted

By SwirlyGrrl on Thu, 04/03/2014 - 1:21pm.

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.