Red fox caching out: Mammal Monday

I saw this red fox caching out at Yellowstone National Park last year. It returned to where it had cached its prey and dug it up.

If this animal appears a little different from what you think of as a red fox, that’s because this is a subspecies. This is a Rocky Mountain red fox, Vulpes vulpes macroura.

While this fox may appear large, it’s not that big. Females weigh 10 pounds and males weigh 11-12 pounds.

In the first two photos, you may have thought I took the pictures in the forest. Nope. The red fox caching out was at the Lake Lodge Cabins, at the north end of Yellowstone Lake. It was not afraid of people in the vicinity at all.

When we visited the park, we spoke with a man who worked at the small airport in the town of West Yellowstone. Part of his job is maintaining the runways. He said the foxes often cache items under mounds of dirt, making an uneven landing surface. Since the airport is near houses, he told us they cache things like children’s toys and dog toys. Though he liked to watch them, they made his job a little harder.

Mammal Monday

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