Fox Scream!

 Fox photos by The Becka

Foxes are a wild animal that I rarely see anywhere in Ontario. Coyotes are more commonly found as they venture into city subdivisions from time to time, or roam in farm fields. This year, our neighbourhood has been home to a family of foxes. The city is expanding quickly to the south-west and a lot of farmland and bush has been graded for houses in the past couple of years. Wildlife will be more common in urban areas as we encroach their natural habitat. 

These foxes are bold and observe us as much as we observe them. My daughter took the pictures on this page with an iPhone so the animals were quite close. We have encountered them several times recently on our street and in our next door neighbour's backyard. Come to think of it, the young bunnies in the neighbour's yard aren't around anymore. They used to come under our fence in the evening to eat clover in the lawn.

Two foxes across the road at dusk-  one is screaming

This weekend at dusk, we heard screaming that would strike terror to the heart of anyone who heard the sound. It was close to our house but I was afraid to go out to investigate as it sounded like a murder in progress. Finally I found the courage to go into the yard and was very surprised to see a pair of foxes sitting across the road. One of them was clearly the "screamer" and I thought it must be gravely injured.  In the meantime, my daughter was looking up "fox screams" online and discovered this is one of several vocalizations that foxes use when communicating. I could not imagine hearing this in the dark in a lonely wooded area! We ask our grandchildren to tell us what various animals sound like and get responses like "neigh",  "oink", "moo", and "roar". Listen to this short video to see what a fox sounds like! It isn't easy to imitate.

At least I will know what it is next time.