Squirrel and Fox, September 29, 2009
We have a problem with ground hogs (woodchucks) burrowing under our shed. I trap them with a small animal trap and then take them far enough away that they can’t find their way back.
Occasionally, I get other animals like raccoons (nasty!), rabbits, or squirrels. I just let them out right away. However, once I kept getting the same squirrel; apparently it liked the free food. I decided I had to take it away, so it wouldn’t keep spoiling my efforts to get the ground hog. But I would wait until the next morning.
When I got up, I looked out in the back, and the trap was gone! Then I walked to the den at the other end of the house and there was the trap just outside the den window with the squirrel still inside. I went to the kitchen to get coffee and came back to the den and the trap was gone!
So now I looked for it. A fox was dragging it across the yard! I got dressed and got my camera and took some photos. They are all shot from inside the house so as not to scare the fox away. The bottom of the trap is facing the camera. The squirrel would climb up the side of the trap and freeze. Then the fox would nibble at whatever parts of the squirrel it could get to. The squirrel was missing lots of fur and was pretty bloody.
After the photo shoot, I scared the fox away (it didn’t want to go - it owned the squirrel after all) and then took the trap and squirrel several miles away to release the squirrel. The poor squirrel was so exhausted it could barely crawl out of the trap.
Lesson learned: don’t leave an animal in the trap overnight!
Clicking on a photo below brings up a larger version.