Being a hunter isn’t always about the harvesting of an animal. Being a true enthusiast of the outdoors means respecting the animals that one pursues and enjoying their natural instincts. For example, watching a flock of turkeys feed through the woods and seeing how they scratch the leaves back looking for food while making multiple sounds as they move throughout the timber, or perhaps watching a whitetail buck chase the scent of a hot doe while in rut, and witnessing his defense mechanisms get put to the side as he tries to get the doe to accept him. The same goes for predators, all though I love hunting them, I still have a deep respect for them.
I recently got to document a male and female red fox raise their young near my home in southern Missouri. Thanks to my Stealth Cam I was able to capture the beauty of the young foxes as they learned day by day from the male and female fox how to survive in the wild. Throughout a period of a month and a half, I was so intrigued at watching the natural instincts of the foxes as I took photos, videoed and captured several trail camera photos up close with my Stealth Cam DS4K.
It all started one afternoon while I was at home, I looked out my backdoor and I caught sight of a red fox. Upon further observance, I began noticing the movement of 2 young kits playing nearby the female. I hurried to get a camera, making it just in time to snap 4 photos of the young kits, or as sometimes called cubs or pups, just in time before the adult female led them back towards an old barn that sits 150 yards from my backyard. Over the next few days I witnessed the foxes playing and fighting with each other as well as watching the female fox carry a squirrel that she had caught for the young kits a meal. Each day I caught myself eager to catch another glimpse at the interesting predators.
After a week of watching the 3 foxes on multiple occasions, I made an exciting discovery. As I watched the adult female sit watching for danger, similar to that of a secret service agent protecting the President, I noticed that there was now a total of 5 young kits that came out in to the open to do their daily exploring. This is when I decided that I needed a closer photo of the kits, so that I would have record of what they looked like before becoming adults. After making sure that none of the foxes where in sight, I took my Stealth Cam DS4K to the area that I had watched the kits be active in the most. I pointed the camera facing near the barn as this is where I suspected they were living. I left the camera up for 3 days before checking to see if I was able to get a young fox on camera. My assumption was correct, after 3 days, I had several pictures of the young foxes as well as the adult female fox. It was amazing to see details of the young kits up close. I continued to get photos of them for the next month until they were grown enough to move on to a bigger area.
During that month and a half period of watching the red foxes, I was able to witness on several occasions all 5 of the young kits along with the female. Being a predator hunter, I have a passion for watching coyotes, bobcats, and foxes respond to a call and I couldn’t resist this unique opportunity, so in late March I took my electronic caller and placed it fairly close to where I had been seeing most of the fox activity. I played the sound of baby fox in distress and in a matter of seconds the adult female came running to the call to see if it was one of her kits, I was able to snap a few photos of her with a still camera. However, the excitement didn’t end there. After the female had spooked and ran back into the brushy cover, where I had placed my camera, the male adult fox ran toward the sound that I had playing. Even though I was unable to get a photo of him, this added to the story of witnessing a complete family of red foxes.
This is a perfect example of how game cameras can be used for more than just hunting. If one has a true passion for the outdoors, being able to document the natural everyday life of an animal using cameras such as a Stealth Cam throughout an extended period of time, with the time and date on each photo makes a passion for wildlife and the outdoors even stronger.
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