Red Fox Mother Grooming Kits
With all the romping around that they do this time of year, red fox kits manage to get all kinds of leaves, sticks and burrs caught in their fur. It’s a daily battle to keep the kits’ fur from matting, but their mother rises to the occasion and spends hours a day grooming each of her kits. She grabs hold of the burr or other foreign matter with her teeth, slowly pulls it out of the kit’s fur and then spits it out. As you can see, the kits tolerate these sessions with great patience.
Red Foxes Giving Birth
Much is happening below ground at this time of year, including the birthing of red fox pups. In late March or early April, about 7 weeks after mating, female foxes give birth to four to ten young. Each pup weighs about a quarter of a pound, and the white tip of its tail is often already evident. During the first month, the pups grow a dark grey coat (they shed this coat and grow a sandy-colored coat about the time they venture out of their den, which is usually dug in a sandy bank). The mother stays with her young in the den, nursing and curling her body around them to help keep them warm for about two weeks, while the father brings her food. She then resumes her normal activity, returning to the den to nurse, clean and play with her pups.
New Children’s Book by Mary Holland
Do you know a 3 – 8 year old who loves animals and would enjoy getting close-up views of the antics of a red fox kit during the first summer of his life? My second children’s book, Ferdinand Fox’s First Summer, has just been published by Sylvan Dell in both hardback and paperback. I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to observe and photograph young red foxes as they interact with each other and with their parents. This book consists of a selection of these photographs, accompanied by text and an educational component at the end of the book. Look for Ferdinand Fox’s First Summer in your local bookstore. If they don’t carry it, you would be doing me a huge favor by asking them to. Thank you so much. My next children’s book is on Beavers and will be coming out in the spring of 2014. (I am still looking for a publisher for Naturally Curious Kids!)
A Great Christmas Present!
If you’re looking for a present for someone that will be used year round, year after year, Naturally Curious may just fit the bill. A relative, a friend, your child’s school teacher – it’s the gift that keeps on giving to both young and old!
One reader wrote, “This is a unique book as far as I know. I have several naturalists’ books covering Vermont and the Northeast, and have seen nothing of this breadth, covered to this depth. So much interesting information about birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, plants. This would be useful to those in the mid-Atlantic, New York, and even wider geographic regions. The author gives a month-by-month look at what’s going on in the natural world, and so much of the information would simply be moved forward or back a month in other regions, but would still be relevant because of the wide overlap of species. Very readable. Couldn’t put it down. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about the natural world, but there was much that was new to me in this book. I would have loved to have this to use as a text when I was teaching. Suitable for a wide range of ages.”
In a recent email to me a parent wrote, “Naturally Curious is our five year old’s unqualified f-a-v-o-r-I-t-e book. He spends hours regularly returning to it to study it’s vivid pictures and have us read to him about all the different creatures. It is a ‘must have’ for any family with children living in New England…or for anyone that simply shares a love of the outdoors.”
I am a firm believer in fostering a love of nature in young children – the younger the better — but I admit that when I wrote Naturally Curious, I was writing it with adults in mind. It delights me no end to know that children don’t even need a grown-up middleman to enjoy it!
Red Fox Kits Growing Up
Remember those sand-colored, fuzzy fox pups of two months ago? They have grown in their third coat since birth (finally they are really “red” foxes!), their noses have lengthened and their size makes them hard to distinguish them from their parents. Even though they appear adult-like, the kits’ continued playfulness gives away their age.
Naturally Curious Interview – Part 2
Chris Mazzarella, on his blog “Forest Forward” has posted the second half of his interview with me. To read it, you can go to http://forestforward.com/2012/05/07/an-interview-with-mary-holland-part-two/
Aging a Red Fox Pup
There are several ways to estimate the relative age of a red fox pup, one of which is by noting the color of its coat. It is gray for their first month of life, when pups are in their den, sandy-colored for the next six to eight weeks, and red from about three months on. The color of the eyes of a red fox pup also tells you something about their age. For the first eight weeks of its life, a red fox has blue eyes. Around the age of two months, its eyes turn brown. All you have to do to utilize this knowledge is get within a few feet of a pup!
Frolicking Red Fox Pups
These red fox pups are roughly 7 to 8 weeks old…they’ve worked out sibling hierarchy, sampled solid food in the form of moles, squirrels, snakes and turkey and gone on short forays with their mother, but most of the day is spent tumbling with, pouncing on, chasing, biting and sitting on each other. Occasionally they stop long enough to take a nap. (Note the white toes!)
Red Fox Kits Nursing
When red fox kits are roughly five weeks old, not only do they begin spending time outside of their den, but they also start eating solid food and weaning begins. This mother is still nursing her young, but soon she will start discouraging them by not always giving them access to her milk through tactics such as lying on her stomach when they approach her for a meal. Within three weeks the kits will be completely weaned.
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