Henry Rifle Forums

Me and Sadie, granddaughters miniature dachshund, was easing along behind the house in UTV this afternoon and came up on a fox about 10-15 yards beside us. He stood and watched us. He would walk around some, stop and watch us. We rode on down the trail and when we come back he was still there. Still didn't run off. I took Sadie to the house and came back with my shotgun in hand in case he come at me. He finally eased on in the woods and sit and barked for a while. Don't know what was on his mind..

Don

Years ago I was riding my horse and a coyote popped up from behind a mound of dirt, it stared at us for awhile and when I turned around to head home it followed us for quite a distance. I kind of thought it may have been a female with cubs and was just making sure we weren't going to disturb them. It didn't act aggressive at all and stayed quite a way's back when it was following us.

Sometimes when they act different, they may be rabid. But looking at him, I don’t think he was. I’ve had coyotes follow me after dark walking out of woods from my deer stand.

graywolf wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 13, 2022 7:50 am

Sometimes when they act different, they may be rabid.

that was my first thought

JEBar wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 13, 2022 9:44 am

graywolf wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 13, 2022 7:50 am

Sometimes when they act different, they may be rabid.

that was my first thought

Ditto!
I would watch closely for that one.

I think I might have rabies because people tell me I’m strange.

Fox version of situational awareness. People could learn a thing or 2 about that from various critters.

"Observe your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why? Naturally his superior hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it. He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He's not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical security. Do likewise." Jeff Cooper

I've had similar encounters with other types of wildlife, especially when riding trails with my mountain bike. I think it's mostly threat assessment behavior on their part when they experience something new or something that seems out of place/something they don't quite understand. In my case a human riding a bike or in your case, probably the UTV. Humans on foot are one thing, but humans in vehicles, on bikes and so on they sometimes don't understand.

Not a fox story but reading this post reminded me of a personal experience that is both amusing and embarrassing. My wife and I were camping at our property up near the Canadian border and one afternoon were relaxing outside the trailer when she spotted a cougar walking along the fence line probably 200 yards away. We watched the cat disappear into the creek bottom and watched the road on the other side for it to come out. Nope, didn’t see it come out the other side. So, what does stupid hatchdog decide to do? Go look for it of course… so I tucked my 10mm into my waistband and grabbed my camera. (Pre I Phone days) My wife, dog and I walked down our road across the creek and out onto the county road. We started walking along the road towards where we last saw the cat when a head appeared probably 250 yards away. I’m clicking pics as I walk looking thru the view finder so the image was pretty small in my view. Then my wife shouts it’s moving towards you. So down went the camera and up came the pistol and after shouting to her to grab the dog and slowly walk back up our road I starting backing away with my pistol at the low ready position. Now I’m thinking, “what have you done now stupid?”. As I’m backing away I’m getting a better look at the animal and it’s way too small to be a cougar. But it is advancing towards me which is strange behavior for a wild animal so I stopped backing up to see what it was. A coyote of course…

Later that day I told the guy who lives across the road the story and he said that a coyote had a den of pups in the culvert that runs under the road right where I spotted it. Just a mom defending her offspring.

Never did see the cougar again, must have stayed in the creek bottom.

I remembered something this afternoon and think I know why that fox acted different. the last 2 squirrel seasons at one of my places I sit, a fox would sit about 75 yards from me. Just sit there. When I would shoot, he would move but within a few minutes be back sitting. When I collected all the squirrels, I would walk to where he sit and leave him a squirrel. He was there almost every afternoon I hunted from that place. I bet that's the same fox.

Don

graywolf wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 26, 2022 10:08 pm

I remembered something this afternoon and think I know why that fox acted different. the last 2 squirrel seasons at one of my places I sit, a fox would sit about 75 yards from me. Just sit there. When I would shoot, he would move but within a few minutes be back sitting. When I collected all the squirrels, I would walk to where he sit and leave him a squirrel. He was there almost every afternoon I hunted from that place. I bet that's the same fox.

Don

That’s awesome. Who has who trained.

Biggest fox I have ever seen my son shot at 15y. We were BBQ on the tailgate right on dark when it came up and sat 15y away, He grabbed a torch and little 410 while the fox sat and watched.
Foxes seem to learn where a free deed might be fairly quickly. when rabbit numbers were in plague proportions and we used to regularly shoot under a light leaving the rabbits where they were shot and foxes used to regularly follow us about. Most profession roo shooters that shoot regularly on the same properties have foxes following them about waiting to feed on the gut piles when the roos are dressed.

Kinda like the Hawks or ferrel cats that waste little time to dine on a squirrel I might shoot. Nothing is wasted.

GunnyGene wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 13, 2022 10:16 am

Fox version of situational awareness. People could learn a thing or 2 about that from various critters.

"Observe your cat. It is difficult to surprise him. Why? Naturally his superior hearing is part of the answer, but not all of it. He moves well, using his senses fully. He is not preoccupied with irrelevancies. He's not thinking about his job or his image or his income tax. He is putting first things first, principally his physical security. Do likewise." Jeff Cooper

My rodent control officer is always on the job. Here she is telling me something is under the front deck.

Saw this video on the news the other day. Woman attacked by a rabid fox. It just wouldn't give up until the guy next door showed up with a stick.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFdIoCqtH1o

WOW!! Unbelievable.
It said she was ok, but she had to have several puncture wounds or cuts.