Number One Reason Not To Have Chickens

Gray Fox

Cindy was awakened about 5:30 this morning by a commotion created by a pack of crows in the neighborhood.  When she looked out the kitchen window, she saw this little guy sitting on the garden wall.  She ran to get her camera and got a good picture of him (or her) climbing on our car.

Turns out it's a Gray Fox, (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), also called a Tree Fox because it is so adept at climbing.  In addition to garden walls and elderly Camry station wagons, these foxes are the only true tree climbers among the canid family and can climb just about any kind of fencing, telephone poles, and, of course, trees.  They are timid, elusive and primarily nocturnal, so Cindy was lucky to see this one at all, let alone get a picture of it.  

Gray foxes are omnivorous, eating small mammals, insects, fruits, birds, eggs, and carrion.  And chickens.

Having a resident fox in the near area could be very helpful in controlling the population explosion among the California Ground Squirrels (see Baby Boom), although we're going to have to be careful about putting food scraps in the compost heap.  Project Wildlife suggests adding small amounts of ammonia or cayenne pepper to garbage to discourage scavenging.

If we ever did get chickens, we would have to keep them secure; since foxes can dig under or climb over fencing, the chicken coop would have to be completely enclosed.  That makes sense because foxes are not the only predators in the area; coyotes, raccoons and rats also like chicken or eggs.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner.  At least we know they're out there.

The information in this post came from one of our favorite nonprofit wildlife preservation organizations, Project Wildlife, which helps care for and rehabilitate injured wildlife in San Diego County, and also provides education to the public on how to co-exist with wildlife.