We return to the story of Dolly, her mate, Broken Ear, and their kit, Frances. They moved into one of our dens during the summer of 2023 and stayed for a couple of weeks.
Our cameras recorded non-stop while they were with us, both inside the den and out – and often simultaneously if Frances was inside asleep and one of her parents was outside keeping watch from the tall stump. So we have hours and hours of great video and we’re having fun publishing it.
In Part 2 of our story we see Frances exploring her new home and climbing on the logs and stumps while her mother smilingly keeps her eye on things.
Frances had no siblings to play with, and Dolly – the most patient and loving fox mother we’ve ever had the good luck to observe – seemed to understand that she needed to become the fun companion that her kit was missing. Fox kits play-fight constantly and Dolly put up with tail-pulling, ear-biting, nose-chewing, and countless gleeful ambushes. She was endlessly patient and seemingly indestructible.
In this part, we also meet Frances’s father, Broken Ear, for the first time and see Frances’s and Dolly’s excitement at his arrival. Broken Ear was an attentive mate and father, but he had recently been injured in a fight (probably a territorial wrangle with another fox) and for the first week or so of our story he was still sore and trying to avoid being further beaten by his rambunctious little daughter.
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