22 



FARMERS' T5ULLETIN 795. 



BEHAVIOR. 



During the day, particularly in fine weather, foxes are generally 

 quiet, staying either in their dens or curled up among the branches 

 of a tree or upon a shady platform several feet above the ground, 

 whence they can see all that goes on around them. Late in the after- 

 noon they arouse and until morning engage in a variety of activities. 

 Sometimes they run and caper joyfully; sometimes when the soil is 

 soft and the yards are not floored they dig, although animals ac- 

 customed to captivity rarely show a determined effort to escape by 

 this means. When suddenly frightened they often attempt to escape 

 by climbing the fence. 



In the majority of fox yards the inmates skulk and hide whenever 

 anyone approaches, although ordinary travel along a thoroughfare 

 a hundred yards or more away gives them no apparent concern. All 

 moving objects interest them keenly. Birds alighting within their 

 yards often fall prey to their agility. Among themselves they are 

 generally at peace, but a flash of treachery is likely to be displayed 

 whenever one animal finds another at a disadvantage. One fox will 

 seize and mangle another's foot that has been carelessly placed on 

 the intervening fence, or will maim or kill a neighbor's cubs. 



The natural timidity of foxes can be largely dissipated by special 

 efforts to domesticate them in the full sense of the word. By wean- 

 ing them early and thereafter feeding them from the hand, they 

 usually become gentle and attached to their pens. When animals 

 escape they sometimes return of their own accord or allow their 

 keepers to capture them without difficulty. For example, a tame red 

 fox after being liberated from a ranch maintained for cross and 

 silver foxes went to live in the woods but presented himself early 

 each morning at the gate of the ranch to be let in for a visit with his 

 former comrades. After a time he commenced a burrow on a dry 

 knoll in one corner of the outer yard and devoted half an hour daily 

 to its extension. Although his career was, unfortunately, cut short 

 by a trapper, he lived long enough to indicate very clearly that the 

 wildness of foxes can be modified or even overcome. 



HANDLING FOXES. 



Unless foxes are diseased or injured, it is rarely necessary to lay 

 hands on them. When one is to be removed from its yard, ordi- 

 narily it can be first driven into its den and thence into a small 

 handling box ha ving a sliding door at one end and strong wire net- 

 ting covering one side. In this manner it can be transferred without 

 danger of injury to itself or its keeper. It is best to darken the 

 handling box by covering it or by turning the netted side downward 

 on the ground before attempting to drive a fox into it. In actually 



