Fox: The Cat-like Canid

Here are a few pictures from the game camera in the yard. Fox come by almost every night, but this time I also got the neighbor's cat.

You can see that a fox and a cat are about the same size. They are also built very much the same, as fox bones are much lighter than their normal canid counterparts. Unlike most dogs, which hunt in packs, fox are solitary hunters, like cats, and like cats they mostly eat mice and other "meals for one".

The two fox you see here are not hunting, but scavenging. I think this is a vixen and her female semi-adult kit from earlier in the year; what I call a "satellite vixen" as she may stay around when the older female pairs up, while the dog fox in the same litter will be driven out to find their own territory. Fox are so dense on the ground around here, however, that territories seem to overlap -- we have some tension between Vulpes in the front yard at times!
.