Gray foxes are generally pretty business-like creatures – life in the wild is hard work, and our foxes take that work seriously. However, we discovered last fall that when they think no one is watching the youngsters will romp and play like little kids.
The foxes in this video were playing on some strategically arranged branches – mostly from live oaks that were damaged during the 2023 ice storm. The strategic arranging was done by Dan, who has become the world’s greatest critter perch-and-playscape designer. He puts up screech owl perches that get perched on within hours; his hollow log “forest” on the deck has entertained generations of rock squirrels and baby raccoons; and the stumps he arranged around the firepit are so reliably sat upon by the foxes that it’s become a cultural norm for them. They all do it.
But back to our video: It’s long – nearly 5 minutes – but we have hours and hours of footage showing the young foxes racing around like lunatics and climbing all over Dan’s playscape branches, and leaving so many great clips on the cutting room floor was hard to do.
The kits’ father, Pale Fox, often joined in in the fun (the youngsters usually had a parent there supervising), but if their mother, Dolly, was in attendance she found a comfortable vantage point and kept watch. We’ve rarely seen Dolly play.
Anyway, enjoy the fun. Dan and I laugh every time we watch this video – how can you not laugh at a young fox hanging from a branch with his front paws while the rest of him swings in the breeze? Even his brother and sister were laughing.
Our excellent production associate, Martin Bludworth, combed through hundreds of clips and created the original very long version of this video, and then Dan edited it down to the 5 minutes we see here. Without Martin’s help we’d still just be talking about doing it. It was a big job.
#texasbackyardwildlife