GUELPH - One sly fox can be difficult to trap but five is a whole other story that starts and ends at Riverside Park.
Known as the ‘Riverside 5’ the group of juvenile foxes were seen frequenting Riverside Park in August. A volunteer group of wildlife responders of about three, with no formal name, received reports of the foxes and with their training decided to trap the foxes since symptoms of mange were reported by locals.
Mange is spread by parasites through skin-to-skin contact and can be spread to more than just foxes. It's an infestation of mites and symptoms like hair loss, rashes and itchiness can occur.
To trap the foxes the group monitored them to find out where they would spend time so they could set up traps.
The traps were set up with cameras during the day since the group didn’t want to inadvertently trap other animals like raccoons. The group initially thought there were two foxes at Riverside Park but there were five, caught one by one.
“There was one that was quite difficult to catch, and we called him Sly. But then again, who knows who Sly is? I think they were all Sly because they were all really difficult to catch,” said Daphnée Lamer, wildlife responder with the volunteer group.
The foxes were wary going into the trap where there was food. When volunteers would watch the traps or the cameras it’s like the foxes knew something was up.
A lot of work is done behind the scenes and what people sometimes think is nothing is being done, when that’s not the case, said Lamer. Once trapped the foxes were brought to the Toronto Wildlife Centre for rehabilitation and when the group arrived staff told them all the foxes they had at the centre were from Guelph, she said.
The name, Riverside 5, was because they were found at Riverside Park but there are more than just five foxes at the park, but luckily the others didn't look like they had mange.
The Riverside 5 were released two weeks ago back to Riverside Park. It was an emotional moment with a few tears shed.
Lamer and another volunteer were the ones who opened the cages. “It was quite a surreal moment,” she said.
She thinks this will happen again with the foxes; contracting mange and having to be trapped to be rehabilitated. It can take weeks of rehabilitation for foxes depending on their state when they arrive for treatment. Besides mange, foxes are also treated for other infections, malnutrition, dehydration and their hair has to grow back too.
There are a variety of factors involved in foxes contracting mange. Things like rodenticides, pesticides used to kill rodents, can weaken the immune system of a fox.
Lamer also thinks because of the warmer winter there wasn't much of chance of mites to die from the cold. “It's an everlasting battle, where every year, this year, was particularly bad for mange. We were seeing it everywhere,” she said.
At Riverside Park there is a feeding problem “and I witnessed that by being there for so long every day. People are dropping off food scraps and leaving food behind for the foxes, specifically, and … it disrupts their foraging habits, it increases their dependency on humans,” said Lamer.
Foxes shouldn’t be seen out day-to-day in a place like the park but “they're out in the fields playing and stuff, because they know that there's a source of food there. So they're more willing to come out and be less scared and wary of humans, right?” said Lamer.
The foxes would walk up to people’s cars by the park “which is not normal behaviour, and it encourages overcrowding of the foxes, and then that spreads diseases,” she said.
She wants to see a stop to the feeding of foxes because if not there will be a further decline in the fox population. These animals are part of the ecosystem and control rodents. She hopes the group’s efforts in trapping the foxes will deter them from being in contact with humans.
“We need to learn how to coexist without stepping over those boundary thresholds,” she said. The people who fed the foxes may have felt bad for them since they looked sick but they shouldn't have been fed since it makes the problem worse.