[HN Gopher] The elemental strangeness of foxes
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The elemental strangeness of foxes
Author : swibbler
Score : 46 points
Date : 2021-06-15 21:51 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.plough.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.plough.com)
| chrisbennet wrote:
| I love foxes too.
|
| Here are a couple of books on them I liked:
|
| "The Sprite: The Story of a Red Fox"
| https://www.amazon.com/Sprite-Story-Red-Fox/dp/B001JL4JWY
|
| "Red fox: The Catlike Canine" https://www.amazon.com/Red-fox-
| Catlike-Canine-Smithsonian/dp...
| rcurry wrote:
| I've always liked foxes. I was an avid coyote hunter for years
| and used to call foxes in all the time. They're hilarious because
| when they come smoking in for the kill and realize it's a trap
| they try to act nonchalant and just veer off like "Oh, yeah, I
| wasn't actually falling for that bro." I had a big red Fox who
| lived in the woods next to my friend's farm and he'd always come
| out at night when he heard me calling and just hang out near me,
| he knew I was there and just liked to come out and goof off.
| Sometimes he'd just hop up on a hay bale next to me, wrap his
| tail over his nose and go to sleep like it was nothing. Funny
| little guys, lots of personality. But fragile too, they have a
| very short lifespan in the wild.
| senectus1 wrote:
| yeah they're nasty pieces of work sometimes as well. They
| slaughter wildly in chicken coop's. they often kill and eat
| just the tail and tongue of lambs in sheeping communities.
|
| but I can't help but love how sleek and beautiful they are, the
| noises they make and their playful natures.
| nestorD wrote:
| Note that I have seen a chicken coop devasted by a dog in
| exactly the same way. It was not a pretty sight.
| Digit-Al wrote:
| Apparently the killing of multiple chickens in a coop is not
| arbitrary / vicious. Because food is scarce in the wild, if
| given the opportunity they will kill as many as possible and
| then bury them in caches so they have food for several days.
| Unfortunately (for them) when they kill multiple chickens in
| a coop they get interrupted by the owner so can't return - so
| it ends up looking like pointless cruelty.
| javajosh wrote:
| I wonder if it doesn't serve them in another way, namely to
| deny competitors (especially other foxes) a ready meal. It
| might also be so that they can eat one chicken in peace and
| not get poked by the others! But yes, like orcas clearly
| playing with living, in-pain seals, or any number of other
| phenomena, nature can be quite cruel.
| MisterTea wrote:
| I wonder if its simply a case of "eyes bigger than the
| stomach". The fox gets over excited with a coop full of
| chicken and goes overboard as there's so much food.
| Similar to buying too much food or snacks when shopping
| hungry.
| throwaway675309 wrote:
| This guy has watched a lot of studio ghibli movies, it's written
| in a very heavily romanticized manner with a great deal of
| anthropomorphism thrown in.
| lurquer wrote:
| >Even as I wanted to avoid it biting me, I wanted to feel its
| teeth. I wanted to be rejected by the wild. [. . .] For the blood
| it would draw from my hand to be evidence of the permanent
| barrier of strangeness, of human and animal, the line between
| fiction and reality, that existed between the two of us. I wanted
| to know a fox, and at the same time, to know that I could never
| know him. [. . .] The pain of being bitten and the joy of
| possibly knowing what it feels like to be bitten by a fox. Not
| only to see one, but to be marked by one.
|
| Uh, yeah...
|
| I'm pretty sure the fox took one look at the author and thought,
| "There's no way in hell I'd bite that tripping hippie. Yuck."
| cafard wrote:
| I live in Washington, DC, a bit more than 3 miles from the White
| House. There are fox in the parts of Rock Creek Park next to our
| neighborhood, and sometimes in the streets or our yard. I can't
| give you an exact account of their diet, but one once left a rat
| in our yard for me to dispose of. One night I saw two stalking a
| cat--I have to think it would have been a lot of work for the
| trouble.
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| Foxes make a racket at night. But they probably keep the rats
| down so that's a good thing. They also kill cats which doesn't
| really bother me.
| doublerabbit wrote:
| Foxes are amazing animals. The disrespect they get for being
| pests and vermin is wrong. We destroyed their habitat. And I
| disagree with the Russian fox domestic program.
|
| Hunting them for sport is wrong and unfair although I would turn
| my head if it was seasonal and usage of inhumane methods were
| banned.
|
| As much I would love to own a fox which is legal I couldn't bare
| taking something away from wild nature. We struggle to look after
| Dogs and Cats let alone Rabbits. We don't deserve foxes as pets.
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| I knew of someone who had pet foxes.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| Yeah, apparently they can be domesticated relatively easily,
| at least one generation at a time. My understanding is that
| the process has to be repeated with their offspring, so they
| aren't truly a domesticated animal (yet).
|
| At least some sources say they make good pets... but probably
| not for people who already have house rabbits, I imagine.
| ehw3 wrote:
| Yes, yes, but what does the fox SAY?
| animal531 wrote:
| I enjoy watching SaveAFox on youtube. Personality wise they
| overlap with cats and dogs in some ways, but they definitely have
| their own fox traits.
| dmitriid wrote:
| Cat software running on dog hardware
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