Before you complain about me being a nuisance ....

[Scuba]

[Arkansas Granny]

1. That certainly brings it into focus.

[adirondacker]

2. So true on so many levels. Big K&R! nt

[rhett o rick]

3. k&r thanks for posting. nm

[Brickbat]

4. Foxes are a nuisance?

Only if you're not keeping your chickens right, I guess.

[Neoma]

16. They chase cats.

[Brickbat]

17. Outdoor cats are a nuisance.

[seveneyes]

25. Not always

They help to keep the barn mice to a minimum.

[Scootaloo]

32. And foxes and coyotes keep cats to a minumum

[SaveAmerica]

29. I had a friend get many visits from foxes after woods were torn down

to build one of those big box home improvement stores. She said they just wandered in and around her yard which has the only (narrow) strip of woods in the area now. They never bothered her or other families.

But, good news - there's now a place to buy 2 x 4s that's 5 miles closer than the one the next city over.

Yay.

[MineralMan]

5. We had a red fox in our backyard a few weeks ago.

Beautiful little canine. Not a nuisance to us.

[Link Speed]

20. We have one that lives in a creek bed on our place

He is not terribly intimidated by us and it is always a joy to see him.

[MineralMan]

21. Cool. We've only seen this one once, when barking dogs

let us know something was in the yard. I was a little surprised, since we're in a fairly dense residential neighborhood, but there is open country not far away, and a park nearby.

I hope we see the fox again.

[Link Speed]

24. We are in residential, as well

Four blocks off of one of the busiest Town Plazas in Wine Country.

However, our property is unique and the little fellow enjoys quite a buffer zone. That creekbed is his own private cafeteria. I normally see him when I'm sitting on the back deck, drinking a Manhatten.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. I think foxes are beautiful. I saw something a little while back,

either online or on PBS, can't remember, where some people raised tame foxes. They bred them for several generations, separating the tamer ones from the more feral, just like they did in the wolf study. They had some tame foxes, but they're markings changed just like the wolves did. They also had floppy ears and less-bushy tails. It's too bad, because I would love to have a tame fox, but I would want one with a pretty tail. Without that, the fox might as well be a dog.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. That was a Russian project.

And one of the things that happens when you breed for docility in such creatures is that they tend to retain more infantile traits; wolf & fox pups tend to have floppy ears when very young, for example. That retention if infantile characteristics is formally known as "neoteny." As a total aside, one of the major differences between humans & chimps is that we retain more infantile ape traits than they do--hair patterns, head to body ratio, etc.

[LuvNewcastle]

12. I'd never heard about neoteny. Interesting. I wonder what would

happen if you kept breeding the smartest or the most docile chimps or gorillas for several generations. Some scientists have probably done it. I think I'd rather have intelligent gorillas than smart chimps, though. I don't know if you'd ever breed the violence out of the chimps. It certainly hasn't happened with humans.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Maybe breed bonobos then.

What the neoteny business points to is that much of evolutionary change has to do with selection focused on the developemental timing genes.

[LuvNewcastle]

14. Yes, those genes are related to the other genes that control tameness/ wildness.

Bonobos would definitely be a better choice than chimps. They would be too busy fucking to think up ways to attack us.

[Populist_Prole]

7. Rich selfish conservatives are the worst in that regard

Over the years I've heard several complain; friends, acquaintances, relatives getting a new place built out in rural or scenic areas and then bitch about local wildlife on their property...and they're real proprietary about it: "MY property!!". Not only are they hostile to the local wildlife they displaced ( I guess it's "human exceptionalism"? ) but they often change the local demographics in a bad way: Making "blue" or purple ( moderate ) areas more "red", raising property values that make life tougher for the original populace, and demand more convenience to what they left behind, resulting in ugly sprawl....and then have the nerve to complain about congestion, let alone deer eating their apples, coyotes scaring their dogs, javelinas eating their shrubs.

[RC]

9. Now take that, all you 3rd way, DLC DINO's.

We are getting fed up with you trying to rebuild our Left leaning Democratic home into your image.

[raccoon]

10. I was going to say, Scuba, you're a nuisance, but I see that it wasn't about you. nt

[Scuba]

11. Being a nuisance is what I'm best at!

[Jefferson23]

15. Good OP. This summer I watched a fox on my property, he was sunning himself

just lying in the grass, lol. He hung out for awhile and then took off. One concern
I have for the fox due to their circumstances is some begin to feel comfortable around people,
that trust is not good for them...not in the long run.


K&R

[truedelphi]

22. Theya re so very beautifull. I haven't seen the red fox

I glimpsed back in 2009 since then.
But until the area is fully developed, I think he is doing fine (3,000 acres of untouched wilderness above our home.)

Animal habitat being left alone is one of the few benefits of the 2006 housing economic collapse.

[Jefferson23]

23. Very striking looking animal, yes...of course the tail is amazing.

Sounds like a spectacular area you live in and true, that is one aspect of the housing
collapse that is a benefit.

We have a lot of deer, they love the apple trees here on our property, but they
too are quite comfortable around people...and I see it even with the wild rabbits.

Don't get me wrong when they hear humans they'll flee, but not as quickly as they
should or have done in the past...just my anecdotal assessment.

[Jake2413]

18. Man does it again....

[hue]

19. Awwww! The fox & the rest of Mother Nature's brood....

Scuba, thanks for Your nuisance factor here on DU!!

[Rhiannon12866]

26. Awwwww...

I also think about this a lot, sometimes see deer on my way home at night and I worry about them, too.

[WCLinolVir]

27. Humans are the real nuisance.

[SaveAmerica]

28. Oh, THAT'S what a fox says!!!

[hopemountain]

30. every evening 5 valley foxes make their

way through our yard (1 acre) to the creek 1/4 mile away. they are about the size of a large cat. there is a pair and 3 solitaries. one early evening i spied one of the solitaries curling up on a soft mound from a ground out tree stump right outside my window. so amazingly cute in his own little world. waiting for a mole to crawl out from under the ornamental quince, no doubt...