Nature Notes: Red foxes make good neighbors

• By MARLENE A. CONDON
• November 25, 2025

When I heard that Harrisonburg city personnel had killed two raccoons and a fox for supposedly digging up areas of the Heritage Oaks Golf Course, I wrote to City Manager Alexander Banks VI. He responded by telling me he “immediately put a halt to all such practice” and explained that the city’s “staff at [the golf course] put together several non-lethal strategies to address the wildlife destruction…[including] motion sensor cameras/lights and the use of natural repellants.”

I was relieved that the city had changed course, especially if this situation was only about damage that could be repaired. All of us require a properly functioning ecosystem in which to live, and those killed mammals had helped to create such an environment for all of us, humans and wildlife together. Folks need to keep in mind that these critters are simply trying to survive, not be problematic for humans.

One of my earliest childhood memories is of a Red Fox at my grandfather’s farm in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts. I was in the front seat between my parents as we entered the driveway to the farmhouse. It was after dark, and as the headlights lit the front of the barn ahead of us, a Red Fox trotted through the beam of light. I was enthralled.

It was my first-ever glimpse of this small relative of “man’s best friend,” the dog. Barely as large as your average house cat, a Red Fox is a slim creature with lovely red fur and a large bushy tail. It’s been said that a fox couldn’t survive without its tail, which it uses as a blanket to cover the bare bottoms of its paws and its nose in cold weather.

Humans aren’t prey species for such a small animal, and wild animals try very hard not to interact with any animal that’s larger than they are. In the natural world, size confers advantage. That means a smaller animal is much more likely to be harmed or killed in an encounter with a larger one. Because it doesn’t want to die, and because it can’t survive easily if injured, an animal will try to flee from bigger creatures if it can.

If it’s not possible to get safely away, the smaller animal will attempt to intimidate the larger animal into leaving it alone. That’s why a rattlesnake rattles its tail tip before striking and a skunk stomps its front paws, hisses, and raises its tail before spraying.

So, generally speaking, people don’t need to fear personal harm to themselves or their pets from a Red Fox. Unless a fox has rabies (a rare disease; otherwise, it would wipe out entire populations of susceptible animals), it isn’t about to attack a human, a cat, or a dog.

Of course, if folks are raising chickens that are food for foxes and other predators, then they need to build a predator-proof enclosure to protect them.

Learn about your wildlife neighbors to appreciate all they do for you.