(If you didn’t see yesterday’s post this is a continuation of a story about the Yellowstone Picnic Area foxes. Read the previous 6 posts to catch up.)
Day 7 – Fox Enemies
As I mentioned before the fox babies spent their time either sleeping or playing. The above photo is of them in a fairly intense game of tug-of-war with a really old and nasty looking ground squirrel skin. They must have had a lot of ground squirrels around. Some were whole and easily recognizable. Others were just scraps and it was often difficult to tell what part it was.
One of the things Mom spent a lot of time doing was looking for enemies. I don’t know if the ravens were really enemies or just an irritation. The babies were too heavy for a raven to carry off but the scraps of ground squirrels around were not. 
Mom was always vigilant but the raven stole scraps from them occasionally. He didn’t even bother to carry them off. He just flew to a safe perch in a nearby tree. He was quite fastidious. He spent several minutes pulling all of the fur off this scrap (I’m not sure what it is but I know it had hair and a tail) before he ate the skin. Yummy!!
Another enemy we only saw towards the end was a badger. But that is a story for another day. I will tell you about the badger tomorrow.
Nice story continuation on the fox family. Thanks
Why did the badger have to show up?