Kit Fox in Trap 





On Thursday, I was working on a biological survey just outside Alamo, Nevada and I saw this kit fox frantically trying to enter its burrow. After a few moments, it gave up and just calmly laid in the burrow entrance. Ryan and I walked back to the vehicles to get cameras and we took a lot of pictures.

We never considered releasing the animal because it is illegal. I cannot imagine why people would want to trap kit foxes. They are quite small (about the size of a large housecat) and I can't imagine the small pelts are worth much. They are predators but they mainly prey on rodents. I did return late in the day and the fox was still in the burrow entrance. I called the Nevada Division of Wildlife poaching line to check if kit foxes were in season (yes, the season runs from October 1 to February 28) and how often the trapper has to check their traps (every 96 hours). So it is obvious that animals are trapped when the fur is densest and before breeding season. Still, I wonder how often animals freeze to death after being trapped (temperatures in the area were in the teens a few nights earlier). Incidentally, the phone book I borrowed from the motel to get the poaching hotline number (Great Basin Phone Directory serving Ely, Ruth, Baker, Alamo, Eureka, Panaca, Caliente, Modena, McGill, Rachel, Pioche, Lund, and "surrounding areas" ) had the listing on page 1 (Emergency Service Providers) as "Operation Theif Game" (sic).

I began to realize how little I know about trapping. I did a little more research and found an article on trapping from 2000. Surprisingly muskrat is the most common fur-bearer trapped in Nevada followed by coyotes, bobcats, and beavers. Kit fox is way down on the list with 154 pelts reported in 1999. So I don't think trapping is having any major effect on kit fox numbers in Nevada but it was still very shocking to me to see the brutality and cruelty of trapping up close and personal.  

Posted: Wed - February 9, 2005 at 08:55 PM          

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