by Roland D. Hallee

When we first moved out to camp for the summer in mid-May, we heard something mysterious on our fourth day out there. It was after dark, and from a distance, we heard a wailing, lamenting  siren-like shriek. Everyone around was wondering what was making that noise. At first we thought it was a small, yiping dog. But it continued almost uninterrupted.

Then, someone mentioned that a family of foxes had been residing under the main office during the winter, and had recently moved out.

That was it. The sound we heard was that of a red fox. It is common to hear those kinds of cry during the foxes’ breeding season, and thought to be emitted by a vixen’s (female fox) summoning males. Foxes generally greet each other with high pitched whines, particularly submissive animals. During an aggressive encounter they will emit a throaty, rattling sound.

An adult red fox has been identified with 12 different sounds while kits may produce eight.

The red fox, Vulpes vulpes,  is the largest of the true foxes and the most abundant wild member of the species. It is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Besides its large size, red foxes are different from other species because of their ability to adapt quickly to new environments. There are 45 different subspecies of foxes.

The red foxes have a long history of interacting with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries. Because of its widespread range and large population, the red fox is one of the most important furbearing animals harvested for the fur trade. Too small to pose a threat to humans, it has successfully colonized many suburban areas.

Urban red foxes are most active at dusk and dawn, doing most of their hunting and scavenging at these times. Despite their search for usable food, foxes tend to eat anything humans eat.

These foxes can cause problems for local folks. Foxes have been known to steal chickens, invade rubbish cans and raise havoc in gardens. In our case, we heard that a nearby neighbor, who kept chickens, had many disappear in a relatively short period of time. They will also prey on domestic rabbits and guinea pigs if they are allowed to run in the open. Urban foxes have been known to encounter cats and may feed alongside of them. In confrontations, cats usually have the upper hand, although foxes have been known to attack cats, not so much for food but rather as a competitor for food.

Red foxes are not readily prone to be infested with fleas.

Red foxes live in family groups, sharing a common territory. They may leave their families once they reach adulthood if the chances of winning a territory of their own are high. Otherwise, they will stay with their parents, postponing their own reproduction.

Red foxes have binocular vision, but their sight reacts mainly to movement.  Their hearing though, is their strength, being able to hear a squeaking mouse at about 330 feet. Their sense of smell is good, but weaker than that of a domestic dog.

Being the largest of the Vulpes genus, on average, an adult male will measure 14-20 inches high at the shoulders, 18-35 inches in body length, and the tails measuring 12-22 inches. Their weight range is 5 – 31 pounds, with vixens weighing 15 – 20 percent less.

Red Foxes are often mentioned in folklore and mythology of human cultures. In Greek mythology, the Teumessian fox or Cadmean vixen, was a gigantic fox that was destined to never be caught. According to  Celtic mythology, witches were thought to take the shape of foxes to steal butter from their neighbors. In later European folklore, the figure of Reynard the Fox symbolizes trickery and deceit.

The red fox originated from smaller-sized ancestors from Eurasia shortly after the Wisconsin glaciation, which took place approximately 85,000 to 11,000 years ago. It was the most recent major advance of the North American ice sheet complex.

At camp, the red foxes have been sighted many times, and because of that, we can’t leave the sliding glass doors open while we are not there. With only the screen door between the outside and inside, our pet rabbit would be fair game for a red fox roaming in the area.

The scent of Dudley – our 9-year-old Holland lop – would probably be too much to resist.

by Debbie Walker

Please bear with me and yet another local article about the lock down at Wal-Mart in the Newport/Palmyra store on Friday, August 19. My big thank yous to the Maine state troopers, local sheriff’s department, Newport police, Wal-Mart staff and management, Dunkin’ Donuts staff, first responders and anyone that I may have left out of this.

With all the craziness in this world today it was wonderful that the whole situation was taken care of with no shots fired. They were able to talk to a distressed, armed man and bring everything to an end, and send the man off for the help he obviously needed.

My friend Kathy and I went in to Wal-mart just before 10 a.m., we were in there for four things. Got right in there, found the things we wanted and were ready to head out. We were headed for the cashiers when a man said, “No need to hurry ladies, we are now on lock down”. Lock down!!!!! You’re kidding, but looking at the people milling around the doors told us he was telling the truth.

Soooo, what to do, so we walked around and the cart grew from four things to a cart load! Someone made the crack that maybe this was Wal-mart’s new marketing plan! I saw a man coming down an aisle with a flat loaded with chairs, didn’t take long to figure out this was going to be a while. So we went to Dunkin’ Donuts for some lunch. They were doing their part of passing out goodies to folks, too.

Most everyone we saw seemed to be trying to make the best out of a bad situation. You have to know no one planned on all that time in there. The staff went around with a cart with water and crackers. Someone else was passing out crayons and paper to the children. How people handle others in strange situations is always of interest to me. I was quite impressed with all the professionalism of all involved.

“Bless his heart,” there was one man in there that had left his dog in the car for a short trip into the store. Needless to say three hours later he is upset. It was towards the end of the ordeal the troopers took him out to bring in the dog and got him water. Kathy and I were feeling bad because that could have been us. Every other day last week we had Toby, her dachshund, with us. Guess we learned an important lesson. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned.
And believe it or not, after spending three hours in Wal-mart on Friday, I still have to go back to do our real grocery shopping. However, I think I will head for Waterville this week.

I’m just curious if we ever show people our true gratitude. Contact me at dwdaffy@yahoo.com. Sub line: Thank you. Thank you and looking forward to hearing from you!