‘They are all over the city.’ Why are we seeing more foxes in Fresno neighborhoods?
Over the past few years, Marcel Nunes has noticed some new visitors in his backyard and along the route of his morning walks on Wilson Avenue in Fresno’s Tower District.
He’s seen a few of them now: foxes, both local grays and the invasive reds. They’re mostly just being chill and “scoping out the neighborhood,” he says, “though, the fact that the cat food is outside, I’m sure is part of the attraction.
“And they help themselves to it.”
Nunes isn’t alone in noticing foxes moving through Fresno’s residential neighborhoods. The Central Valley SPCA and Fresno Humane Society have had an increase in sightings over the past few years, according to executive director Linda Van Kirk.
“We get an average of about a call per week regarding foxes in the yards of Fresno area residents,” she says.
Because the SPCA deals with domestic animals (cats and dogs and the like), it refers people to California Department of Fish and Wildlife, though it does take in sick or injured or sick wildlife at its animal center under an agreement with the Fresno Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation.
Seeing a small quantity of foxes around town is normal, especially right now. It’s spring and animals are denning, says Dan Fidler, a biologist with Fish and Wildlife who has worked in the Fresno area for 15 years.
As to where they’re being seen?
“There are foxes everywhere,” Fidler says.
“They are all over the city.”
In somewhat recent years, foxes have been spotted downtown, in central Fresno (at Ashlan Avenue and First Street), even chilling by the pool at a home in the north of town.
They really like the San Joaquin river corridor, which offers shelter, water and good food sources (that’s fruits and vegetables and maybe some rodents) and have historically been spotted in the Old Fig Garden neighborhood, which dead ends into the Tower District.
“It make sense that they would branch down into that area,” Filder says, though he’s not sure if what residents are seeing is a distribution change.
“It’s hard to to tell how that predator/prey human interaction things play out,” he says.
“Like all things wildlife, there is a cocktail of causes.”
As wildlife goes, foxes don’t cause much trouble. They are the most common urban wildlife in Fresno and adept at living among people.
Canine distemper can be a problem if they get around pets, Fidler says. There are also mites, fleas and sarcoptic mange (which make animals look like the chupacabra). But they have low incidences of rabies (as compared to bats and skunks).
And a resident who sees a fox doesn’t necessarily need to reach out to Fish and Wildlife, Fidler says, though the Wildlife Management program does have a number and they are happy to take calls. It is never bad to have information, he says.
They should take a look at their home for things that could be attracting the animals, such as trash, dropped fruit from trees, or cat food. Other than that, “let those animals continue to be about as wild as they can.”
Fidler tries not to get preachy talking about wildlife interacting with people in urban areas, but says there’s something inherit in the human genome that makes us want to feed things. “The feeding is a nightmare,” he says.
Several years ago, dozens of foxes took over an empty lot in north Fresno because someone was leaving trays of food for them. Fish and Wildlife was able to stop the feeding. The lot eventually became a shopping center and the foxes disbanded into other parts of the city, he says.
So, Fidler doesn’t think the population of foxes in the area has changed, necessarily.
If anything, it’s just being more noticed.
“We live in a strange time with technology,” Fidler says.
“Wildlife is passing in and out of our yards all of the time.” With the proliferation of cameras (in phones and doors and cars) “we’re gaining a glimpse of the world that’s there when they are not paying attention.”