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While my brothers and I were breaking down my bull to pack out we had a red fox show up and it entertained us the whole time we were at the kill sight. The fox would come grab a scrap and we watched him bury two with-in sight of us. Other times it would go out of sight and be gone for several minutes before returning for more. Eventually it took on a hind leg and managed to drag it 30' away and was still chewing on it when we loaded up and headed out. Was the darndest thing. Have never even seen a fox in the area before this.
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Pretty cool encounter for sure.
Super kool !

Must'a been hungry eh ?
Conglads on the bull
Hunger must've been the driver pushing it to come so close, only thing I can think of. It didn't look unhealthy in any way.
Deja vu for me. I had EXACTLY the same experience about ten years ago on Jarosa Mesa, south of Lake City. We were quartering my bull and a beautiful red fox would sneak in, grab a little piece of meat, run off for a few minutes. Then it would come back and do it again, running off in a different direction. He must have done 10 or 12 times. We figured he was caching it when he’d run off.

I have some pics with it about two feet from my boot. We thought we might be able to get it to take meat from a hand but figured it was smarter not to do it.
Originally Posted by TRnCO
While my brothers and I were breaking down my bull to pack out we had a red fox show up and it entertained us the whole time we were at the kill sight. The fox would come grab a scrap and we watched him bury two with-in sight of us. Other times it would go out of sight and be gone for several minutes before returning for more. Eventually it took on a hind leg and managed to drag it 30' away and was still chewing on it when we loaded up and headed out. Was the darndest thing. Have never even seen a fox in the area before this.
[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]IMG_20221030_103909437_HDR by .com/photos/156405073@N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]IMG_20221030_104001732 by .com/photos/156405073@N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]IMG_20221030_104145376 by .com/photos/156405073@N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

[Linked Image from live.staticflickr.com]IMG_20221030_104009652 by .com/photos/156405073@N02/]Tim Richard, on [bleep]

Exact same thing happened to a pard and I as we were elbows deep in a mule deer. Grey fox basically eating out of our hand in middle of nowhere...
Coyotes are their mortal enemies. Humans persecute coyotes and coyotes generally flee from humans. There's an association there and also fox tend to be more inclined to be curious ornbefriend humans. I watched an documentary about an Russian domesticated wolf cross and fox was used to get it more connected to humans.
That's just super cool. I've had Magpies, Ravens, Crows, Eagles and Canada Jays come in and take elk parts when I've been butchering, but never a brassy fox!
That's awesome!
Pretty cool for sure. Thanks for sharing
Years ago I shot a moose in Idaho. We had this same thing but with a pine martin. It was after dark and he kept coming inside our lights. We had frozen snow and at 1 point, he came in and grabbed the hide to drag it away. Yeah, right. A 100lb hide frozen down and a cat sized martin was going to take it. He was trying to back away with it and was throwing snow with all 4 wheels. When we finally left him to the bones, he was up on the rib cage shaking a paw at us and yelling "Don't come back you thieves!"
We had a black fox with a white tip on its tail…I dunno their name.

Come in at night and try to gnaw on the deer hanging.

Great post!

Congratulations.
It’s pretty awesome how nature gives us a peek at its beauty sometimes when we least expect it. Pretty awesome experience you had and thanks for sharing.

Todd
Very cool!
Very Cool indeed ! I’ve only ever seen one Red Fox before and that was while mule deer hunting in Colorado. We have plenty of grey foxes here in N TX, but I’ve never seen a red one here.

Had a big grey fox on the front porch the other night that came up to eat some cat food. Never shoot them or the bobcats anymore. Killed plenty of them when I trapped as a kid. I really enjoy watching them nowadays.
That's pretty doggone cool.

Thanks for sharing the story & photos. smile

Guy
Had one visit me for a minute at 10,000 feet in CO one year just beautiful creatures. Watched a pair of gray foxes hunting a skunk come within 5’ of me in the local mountains- the fox was surprised when he realized what I was but carried on in a few seconds.
We didn't see what it was.
A few years ago, my partner shot a deer 3 miles back. It was warm so we dragged it into the shade, skinned it, laid it on the hide, laid the heart and liver next to it, threw a couple meat bags over it to minimize the flies, and covered it with pine boughs. Then we hiked out to get my llamas. The next morning when we got to the deer, the 1st thing we noticed was both meat bags lying 5 yards away. Nothing else seemed to be disturbed. We pulled off the branches and the deer didn't have a mark on it. However, the heart and liver were gone. It was too grassy to find tracks but we figured it was a fox or a pine martin. Anything larger would have at least chewed on the carcass.

Another place, another hunt. This is greatly enlarged. I'm surprised we ever spotted him.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
He looks healthy. We had a run-in with a pine marten about 20 years ago. We had laid some meat up on a big rock while we hauled out the first load. Got back and the marten had done laid claim to it. Feisty little SOB wouldn't budge. The only thing that convinced him to run off was being pelted with a few rocks.
I had a similar experience with an arctic grey fox on a Caribou trip up in Kuujuuaq (Fort Chimo).

I had to pack it back in 3 trips to my canoe a few miles and he would follow me for a few hundred yards each time but go back to the scraps.

I always wished I had gotten some pictures. This was way before cell phones so no dice.
Pine martins are fun to watch with their antics. You don't want to catch one with bare hands, though. They're well equipped predators.
One time we were sitting down taking a break and a couple of squirrels were chattering. I had tuned them out but my buddy said "did you hear that, the squirrels just shut up all at once. A few seconds later a marten came sneaking through. Cool little anumals.
One time I was bowhunting for deer. I'd spotted a doe and fawn below me and sat down on a pile of dirt to watch them. The fawn was bouncing all over the place playing. Then I heard a sh-sh-sh-sh behind me. Huh? I couldn't see anything so I went back to watching the fawn. sh-sh-sh-sh Ok, what was that and it was getting closer. sh-sh-sh-sh I found it this time. It was a badger running through dry leaves. It was heading for it's hole and mound of dirt I was sitting on WAS it's hole. It ran a 180 around me and was getting closer, about 5 yards. I slowly got up and moved 5 yards the other way. It made a dash and a dive down the hole and was gone. When I turned around, the deer were gone, too.
Yep…..that’s one for the record books! 😁 Quite unusual encounter and some good photos! memtb
Cool story, better a Red Fox than a Grizz right?

Congratulations on your elk TRnCO :o)
One year at our Freeman camp, some critter gnawed on a bunch of hanging elk quarters. Didn't eat much, just chewed the hell outta them. Night before we packed out, I seen what it was. A half-turned, piebald looking little weasel. I chased the little pisser down in the snow and beat him to death with a leather rifle scabbard. Woulda made a funny vid...... He froze overnight so I stuffed him in my saddlebag. When we got back to the trucks, I thawed him out on the defroster and wired a hind leg to the top of the steering wheel to skin him. Must have hit the gland by his azzhole, because he pissed all over the wheel. The skunky-like smell of that little weasel lasted most of the summer in my truck.
Originally Posted by huntsman22
One year at our Freeman camp, some critter gnawed on a bunch of hanging elk quarters. Didn't eat much, just chewed the hell outta them. Night before we packed out, I seen what it was. A half-turned, piebald looking little weasel. I chased the little pisser down in the snow and beat him to death with a leather rifle scabbard. Woulda made a funny vid...... He froze overnight so I stuffed him in my saddlebag. When we got back to the trucks, I thawed him out on the defroster and wired a hind leg to the top of the steering wheel to skin him. Must have hit the gland by his azzhole, because he pissed all over the wheel. The skunky-like smell of that little weasel lasted most of the summer in my truck.

That might be the most western/hillbilly schiet I've read....impressive!
He could probably fill a book with stories like that. Most of the ones I've heard are better
Originally Posted by Jackson_Handy
Originally Posted by huntsman22
One year at our Freeman camp, some critter gnawed on a bunch of hanging elk quarters. Didn't eat much, just chewed the hell outta them. Night before we packed out, I seen what it was. A half-turned, piebald looking little weasel. I chased the little pisser down in the snow and beat him to death with a leather rifle scabbard. Woulda made a funny vid...... He froze overnight so I stuffed him in my saddlebag. When we got back to the trucks, I thawed him out on the defroster and wired a hind leg to the top of the steering wheel to skin him. Must have hit the gland by his azzhole, because he pissed all over the wheel. The skunky-like smell of that little weasel lasted most of the summer in my truck.

That might be the most western/hillbilly schiet I've read....impressive!

LOL +1
Congratulations on the bull.
Might be the best read on the fire in quite awhile!👍
Originally Posted by huntsman22
One year at our Freeman camp, some critter gnawed on a bunch of hanging elk quarters. Didn't eat much, just chewed the hell outta them. Night before we packed out, I seen what it was. A half-turned, piebald looking little weasel. I chased the little pisser down in the snow and beat him to death with a leather rifle scabbard. Woulda made a funny vid...... He froze overnight so I stuffed him in my saddlebag. When we got back to the trucks, I thawed him out on the defroster and wired a hind leg to the top of the steering wheel to skin him. Must have hit the gland by his azzhole, because he pissed all over the wheel. The skunky-like smell of that little weasel lasted most of the summer in my truck.
Had an elk quarter go missing from hanging in a tree one real cold night.
Followed bear tracks a couple hundred yards in the snow.
The bear had carried it far enough to melt a perfect dental impression into the meat on both sides.
I guess that weasel got the last laugh Don. Funny stuff.....
Originally Posted by Alamosa
Had an elk quarter go missing from hanging in a tree one real cold night.
Followed bear tracks a couple hundred yards in the snow.
The bear had carried it far enough to melt a perfect dental impression into the meat on both sides.


We had two down once, four miles from the trailhead so we had multiple 8-mile round trips to get them out. Came back first thing the next morning and someone/something had taken a hind quarter off the tree and moved it about 15 yards but it was still in good shape. We never did figure out what moved it, no visible tracks, hair on the meet, obvious teeth marks, or anything like that. Could've been another hunter who thought he'd lucked into a free hind quarter and then thought better of it once he'd carried it a little ways.

Came back the next morning and there was a sow & cub on one of the carcasses. Could've been them the first day, and we spooked 'em when we walked in.
Whoever invented the idea of hanging your elk at least 10' off the ground obviously never had to leave one in the woods overnight.
I've seen a lot of critters in the woods over the years wandering in different kinds of places, high, low, swampy, desert, etc. One time I got a marten on a trail camera along the crest of the Cascade Range in the snow but I'd never seen one in the flesh 'til one day about 3 years ago I was hiking with some friends off trail and we ran into 2 of them the same day about 3/4 of a mile apart. There's a spot in the area where I ML hunt most often where there's a little colony of fishers. I see the little brown 'n' tan weasels now and then. I think mostly juveniles 'cause about 5 years ago I ran into a much bigger one than I'm used to, maybe 2-3 times the length.

We've got some foxes around here. The young and dumb ones will follow me around 20-30 feet away. My suspicion is I stir up the rodents in the grass and distract them making them easier pickin's for the foxes coming along behind me. They don't get too close, just .. near enough. It's kinda common to get that "being watched" feeling and look around to see 'em sitting back at a distance watching whatever I'm doing.
A friend of mine in PENN was archery hunting several years ago and the woods were busy with squirrels. Suddenly everything went quiet and not a squirrel could be seen. A minute or so later he looked up and spotted a huge hawk perched in the top of a tree. He said it sat there for a good 20 minutes and flew away. Then the squirrels were back in business
Great pictures.
I love these type encounters.
In Colorado my guide and I were resting after a long climb and a Pine Martin came along and as we we just sat still she jumped on my leg and glanced around before she headed on off along her way, I’ve had a chipmunk do the same.
On another hunt in Colorado a guy in camp had killed a real nice non-typical Mule deer and a Red fox came within fire light and grabbed the horns before a well armed rock made him drop them. He came in several more times before the guy wired them to a tree.
A full coated Red in winter is a beautiful animal, ugly in the summer down south most times.
While working for ADF&G one summer out on the Alaska Pen., we were asked to work on an old airstrip about a half mile away, as an alternate/crosswind strip to our very short one at the site (A super cub could land/takeoff with nothing to spare- I extended that by 100 feet also, pick and shovel).

The old strip was something put in by seismic/oil exploration years before, I think, and was grown up with tussocks of grass, - which I was removing in a 30' wide strip the 1,000 - 1500 foot length.

To keep my lines straight, I was using two sticks with 100' of twine. Worked to the end, I'd leave that stiake in the ground, then go up and get the far end, loop it on down the strip, line it up with the finished work and other stake, and start digging again. One such trip, my looping twine came to an abrupt stop - looking back, there was a red fox about 40' back, who had pounced on the string as it looped through the grass. It had a mate and some cubs in the berm nearby. We played "moving string" awhile. Not at all bashful - they would all come within 20 ' or so, very curious as to what I was doing.

A few days later I saw a cow caribou - I think a yearling - coming toward me. She obviously saw me, and just kept coming until she was only about 10 feet away. I kept a wary eye on her and my shovel in my hand (Do caribou get rabies??? smile ). A few minutes later I heard wolves howling off in the not too distance. She hung with me, never more than 40' or so away, for the next 5 hours until I went back to the cabin.

I figure she figured she could run faster than me if need be..... smile
That is an awesome encounter and made even better because of all the pics. I would say that lil dude is definitely a repeat offender and you are not the first hunter that he has visited. Pretty awesome cause I bet the majority of hunters would of popped him in that situation. Very cool.
TRinCO: Congratulations on the Elk and the cool encounter with the wild Fox.
And thanks for sharing the clear photos.
I have "fed" wild Fox fish entrails on three different occasions over the decades - one was while ice fishing out of an ice house.
But never had a Fox come around my big game kill sites.
Thanks again for sharing.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy
Had a red fox walking behind me in Montana last week as I was going down an abandoned logging road. He or maybe she knew the drill. They were disappointed with me.
Pretty cool. We've had coyotes down wind of us after a kill but they never came in so we could see them.
Once left one of Cookie's cow elk kills for 3 days as the snow kept adding up. On return, a bobcat was sitting on the hide. All he had consumed was the tenderloins.

Encountered some serious cat tracks about 200 yds down the hill on the haul out. Fortunately, that one had not worked on the kill. No issues with pine martens or fox.
Good thing it wasn't a coyote...it would have never made it out of there alive....lol.
Critters are more fun to see but here are a couple other pics I've taken while hunting over the years.

this tree must have been twisted by snow in it's youth
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

this rock is about 6' in diameter and almost spherical. It sits on a ridge MANY miles from any old volcanic activity. It had to have got a real toss to get where it is.
[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]
That fox dragged off 1/2 of your total makings for Elk Osso-Buco.
I've often told myself that I need to try some bone marrow, but haven't done it yet.
Very cool and great pics!

I had lunch with a fox once…was skiing A-basin by myself after it had closed for the season. I stopped to have lunch on the deck of the mid-mountain restaurant and he wondered up and grabbed a seat not far away. Wish I had pictures.
I saw a marten after a squirrel once. That squirrel was the fastest mammal I'd ever seen going through the tree tops.

The marten was faster.
Cool pic and encounter. From what I understand that’s kind of how we ended up with dogs thousands of years ago.
Another thread reminded me of this. I was hiking up a trail in the dark, VERY dark. There were a number of hiking trails in the area and I was less than a mile from the trail head. I spotted a light running through the woods. It only lasted a second but then I saw another, and another. They'd come and go. What the hay??? They were moving much faster than a man can run...and they were getting closer. Every so often, I'd get a glimpse of a larger light and it was getting closer, too.
Pretty soon, one of the small lights came right up to me at high speed. It was a Great Pyrenees dog with a GPS harness and a light on a whip. Then there were 2 of them...and 5 of them. They about knocked me down. It was a guy out for a predawn run with his dogs. He said they were all retired sheep guard dogs that he'd got from a sheep rancher. What they really were was a huge grocery bill.
Never had a fox on my kill, but birds and ?, that took a front shoulder of a Caribou in Alaska. A family of Pine Martens tried to take ownership of a cow elk, that I had prepped to pack, a few years ago in Wyoming. They were determined that I had killed her for them. I am sure that they had a great feast, after we got all we wanted out. While stand hunting in Idaho one morning I had a fox come down the trail I was sitting next to. He was inches from me when he finally realized what I was. Same with a couple of elk. Once a young cougar laid down under a tree near me for a nap. I was sleeping under the next tree a few feet away. When I woke up and moved so did he/she as fast as it could go. A mother bear with 2 cubs, wanted to pass me on a trail one day, after I chatted with her for a few seconds, she thought the better of it and went away. Over the years, 60+ in the woods, I have squirrels jump on my knee, martens at my feet, grouse walking between my legs, and wolves and cougars near me in the dark. It's been a great ride.
Deer hunting, not elk, but it was interesting. I was bowhunting and was sitting on a pile of dirt watching a doe and spotted fawn below me. The fawn was bouncing all over the place and was fun to watch. Then I heard a sh-sh-sh sound behind me. Huh? Pretty soon I heard it again, sh-sh-sh. And again. I kept watching and it was a badger running through dry leaves. It was trying to get to it's hole...which was the pile of dirt I was sitting on. I moved 5 yards and sat down again. He ran right up and dived down the hole.
That’s a super neat story!
Watching other critters while hunting is part of the experience. I had a Deer Mouse scamper over the toe of my boot while I was sitting back to a tree. There was a faint whoosh and a Great Horned Owl landed on a low tree branch about 10 ft away. It left when I looked at it. Lucky mouse.

A former colleague and his brothers were on an annual Thanksgiving hunt in the UP. The standing rib roast left in a cooler was a pass after a least weasel wormed it's way into the cooler through the open drain hole....consumed part of the roast and thoroughly fouled the remainder.
At my northern MN bear camp I enjoyed the red fox on the place until the last couple of years they have dwindled. The coyotes are figuring out a comeback with the wolf explosion we’ve had and of course are killing and driving out the fox.
As for weasels I have two holes out in the shed made specifically for them. Great watching them zip around in there and they sure keep the mice at bay. When I’m fleshing animal hides I leave the weasels a nice pile of scrapings.
I get marten in on the place from time to time but they are very skittish if in your area you can build boxes for them and nail them up in trees. Marten will raise young in the boxes but you have to make the access hole small enough to keep the fisher out. They find young marten tasty.

Osky
Never had one come up on a kill, but see a lot of red fox in northern Colorado. while out elk hunting. The thing I find odd about fox is they seem attracted to houses with dogs inside. They regularly get on the porches to look in at my daughter's dogs in Colorado and do the same to my dog in northern Wisconsin.
I was hunting my way up a steep creek on a North facing slope. I came upon a flat open space with only a few aspens. The grasses had been grazed down, elk [bleep] and elk tracks there, and some recent return visits by elk. I thought great!, started looking for a place to post, but I began to find a bunch of stuff scattered around. Bears had dug up buried caches of Mexican food, pieces of poly irrigation pipes, someone had topped several spruces to let in more sun. This was an illegal marijuana grow and a pretty big one. When I recovered from the terror of what I had wandered into the story began to become clear. The growers had irrigated this little clearing and even built a cistern higher up. The water system for the weed had also stimulated a nice pasture of native grasses. The herd came in and enjoyed the grasses at this sheltered location and trampled, or possibly ate, the weed.
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