YELLOWSTONE'S WILD WORLD

Day 9 – The Last Day
(If you didn’t see yesterday’s post this is a continuation of a story about the Yellowstone Picnic Area foxes. Read the previous 8 posts to catch up.)

I am staying home today to do laundry and other mundane chores that build up when we spend 12-14 hours a day in Yellowstone for days at a time. It’s raining now anyway so that’s OK.

I don’t want to leave you in suspense any longer than necessary about what happened a year ago today with the foxes. As I wrote last night we left the foxes with the badger in their den but mom and the two kits safe outside the den. We don’t know where Dad was. When we got to the den the next morning, May 31, 2013, the photographers that were already there believed the badger was still in the foxe’s original den. During the night Mom had dug another den hole. It was less than 100 feet to the west of their original den. Since she had just dug it, it wasn’t very deep and had only one opening.

We set up our cameras and waited, and hoped. That afternoon the baby foxes were playing on a downed tree near their new den with Mom close by. Dad, as usual, was nowhere around. Suddenly Mom walked along the downed tree and left. We had watched this family for 9 days and we never saw her leave while Dad was out hunting. But she did. As soon as she left the babies instinctively went into their new den.

A few minutes later the badger came out of the foxes original den (how he knew Mom was gone I will never know, but he did) and headed straight to the new den.

Once he went into the new den our hopes began to dim. We knew Mom had not had time to dig a large den so there was no place for the babies to hide and no second escape hole. Everyone fell into a deep silence. As the minutes turned to hours and no one emerged from the den we lost hope. Finally after several hours Mom came back. She went straight to the new den and was obviously agitated. She frantically started to dig.

After digging for a while she went down the hole and came up with nothing. She did this over and over. She finally came out with a piece of something we assumed was part of one of the babies. She put it down near the den hole and nosed dirt on to it. She walked 360 degrees around it nosing the dirt as she went. We suddenly found ourselves at a funeral and no one said a word.

Epilogue – We never saw the babies alive again. A day or two after the badger invaded and killed the babies Mom and Dad came back to the den. They sniffed around for a while and then walked over the hill together. We watched until they were out of sight.

Update – Mr. And Mrs. Fox have been seen recently around the Yellowstone Picnic Area. Day before yesterday Mrs. Fox, who is fairly distinctive with her somewhat mangy appearance was seen carrying a ground squirrel. They aren’t at their former den, but they must be nearby and have babies. I hope beyond hope they are successful and that the badger, or anyone else, never finds them.

I promise a story with a happy ending tomorrow.

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