2020—Vixen

The little Red Fox Vixen that we photographed on three of our days in Yellowstone a couple of weeks ago was clearly used to people. She hunted in the same meadow every day and photographers swarmed to the area. We respected her space so we were not a threat to her like many of the other photographers who moved erratically and raced to get closer to her. She avoided the photographers who chased her down and harassed her as she moused in the large meadow by the road. They would follow her as she moved throughout her territory, sometimes moving off the road the into the snow with their tripods and video equipment so they could theoretically get closer photographs. Sadly, for them, all that did was cause her to move further away. After a while, many of them lost interest and left. In the meantime, we stayed by our vehicle parked away from the other vehicles and did not move to the edge of the road. She clearly sensed that we were not a threat. On more than one occasion, she walked between us to cross the road to cache her quarry and then crossed the road again nearby to continue mousing. When the few remaining photographers saw that she had moved closer to us, they moved quickly en masse, stepping in front of us and encroaching on the fox’s space. When she had had enough, she disappeared in the distance. Before that happened, as she moved closer to us to avoid the harassment, we were able to photograph her, her ears are perked up, not laid back indicating she was alert but not threatened by us. She even stopped to check us out.

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