State to study ‘dwindling’ gray fox population in Connecticut

FALLS VILLAGE — Ginny Apple, a master wildlife conservationist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told a capacity crowd all about Connecticut’s foxes at the David M. Hunt Library on Saturday, March 1.

Apple focused on the red and gray fox, the two species most likely encountered in the state.

She said the gray fox population is “dwindling” and that DEEP is about to start a study using electronic collars that track the animals in an effort to find out why their numbers are down.

Apple had a pretty good guess, though: rodenticides.

Mice and other rodents are significant food sources for foxes of all kinds. The bait that homeowners use to kill house mice often results in the poisoned mice stumbling outside and being eaten by foxes.

Apple conceded using snap traps or live traps is cumbersome and likely less effective.

She suggested that live mice could be trapped and then relocated some miles away, in a spot that provides some cover “so they have some chance” at survival.

Mice do have a homing instinct so it doesn’t do much good to just shake them out of the live trap in the back yard, she said.

Lead shot in deer carcasses is another problem. Foxes come across a deer that was shot by hunters and expired but never collected. The foxes eat the meat, and with it the lead shot.

Northwest Corner residents are most likely to see a red fox. Red foxes are bigger than their gray fox cousins, but rarely exceed 12 pounds.

They are adaptable animals, and are not put off by human habitation.

In fact, one very common place to find a den of red fox mothers and kits is under an outbuilding.

If that happens, Apple says the best thing to do is leave them alone, as they will move on once the youngsters are ready.

If it is not possible to host a fox family under the woodshed, the best way to get them to leave is to be noisy.

Apple is an advocate of the Bear Scare Can treatment for scaring off unwanted wildlife.

“That’s a coffee can with coins in it,” she said. “ It makes an unnatural sound.”

She said air horns sound too much like car horns, which foxes are often accustomed to.

Both gray and red foxes enjoy excellent eyesight, hearing and sense of smell.

“They can hear a small animal burrowing at 150 yards.”

She played a sample of fox sounds — a collection of howls, barks, whines and one yowl that Apple says provokes a lot of calls to 911.

One woman in the audience said it sounded like someone being murdered off in the woods.