Thursday, June 30, 2011

Small foxes in the big park



Some of the first wildlife I saw when returning to Zackenberg this spring was two foxes in most of their winter fur still. They hung around the station quite a lot and barked at each other apparently in some territorial demarcation. I suspect that they could be the two young sibling foxes that also frequented the station last fall. Now in May they no longer had close contact but they were very aware of each other and when one went away the other followed in a distance of about a few hundred meters. As we came into June the foxes we saw had shed more and more of their winter fur. On our checks of the activity on the known fox dens I saw an adult fox on only one occasion but I heard muffled barks from the dens and found remains of several musk ox calves. No pups were confirmed before my departure even on the images on the 4 camera traps with interval timers we had set up. I have got notice of pup confirmation now though, and I look much forward to check on them when I return in July.