Before I tell you about the Teton cross foxes I want you to know something. Deby has been working super hard to get the Yellowstone Daily back up. She has been told several times by the site hosting company that it would be back up in a few hours. But each time something happened to keep it from going back on line. She may not admit it but she has been really worried she would disappoint everyone who is a member of The Yellowstone Daily. She deserves a round of applause from all of us. It has been an expensive and frustrating ten days for her. Yea Deby!!!!!!
The main reason we went to the Tetons was because we heard there were cross foxes who had a den under a building by the climbing school. The male and 2 of the kits were cross foxes and the female and the other 4 kits were regular red foxes. Cross foxes are a genetic variation of red foxes. They are black and tan and the black forms a cross shape on their head, shoulders, and back. These were the first I had ever seen and they were beautiful! We also heard a pine marten was coming in and stealing the foxes stash. We wanted to see all of them. We ended out seeing 4 of the kits, the female and the pine marten. We never saw the male at all.
The kits stayed close to one opening in the building where they could access the basement. They were fairly timid when the parents were gone but played a lot when Mom was home. There mom is a very attentive and playful mother and both parents must have been good providers based on how much the pine marten made off with. The parents brought in mice, ground squirrels and marmots. One marmot was so big it couldn’t be taken into the main den entrance, but it did fit in an alternate entrance.
We got to watch them play for 2 days. On the third day we got there in the morning to wait for the foxes to come out. By 10:00 am they still hadn’t come out and we were getting worried something had happened. At a little after 10:00 a big old fat marmot came along and went in the hole the pine marten had been using. We waited for all hell to break loose under that building. And waited and waited. We finally had to admit the fox family had moved, probably because of the pine marten stealing there stashed food. It was super fun watching them while they were there though.
I hope they have found a new, safe den and all of the babies grow up healthy and happy.
Love the cross foxes and the marten!
Thank you! We had a lot of fun with them.
So glad you are back up and running on the Daily! Missed it, but totally understand! Great fox pictures and story!
Thank you! You just prove what a nice bunch of people are members of The Yellowstone Daily. Everyone has been very understanding.
Judy, the cross foxes were delightful and I am glad that we got to share some time with them. And, I am also happy that they have moved to a quieter place to finish raising those 6 youngsters!
Thank you for your kind words. I am still wet from the storm you and I tried to brave so we wouldn’t have to leave our next surprise!