Hello
I'm new to the forum, and new to observing wild fox behavior. I encountered finally, the fox who frequents the city park where I feed a family of feral cats. I've heard this fox on a few occassions, but wasn't sure what it was. I've also seen foxes now and again in the park and also trotting down the sidewalk alongside a busy street. I have been rehabbing mostly birds, and racoons. I trained at Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnujt Creek CA and I work under a licensed rehabber here in BOise.

The other night, I was feeding the cats and I kept hearing this strange barking noise. I went to see what it was and was surprised to see a fox standing a few feet from my car. The fox didn't appear all that shy and even approached a little. A raccoon that was nearby took off like a shot. The fox started to advance on me, so I threw a tiny bit of kibble in it's direction. At first it backed away and then came back for a little taste. Now what really got me was this. The fox circled around back of the building where I have my feeding station. He all of a sudden approaced where the cats were, barking and sort of rearing a little on this front feet. The cats, mostly ignored him. I was standing nearby and the fox didn't seem to be all that frightened of me.

My question is this: What was he doing? Was that an aggression ploy? He didn't appear to be hungy as he only tasted the kibble and went away.
Was he attempting to attack one o fthe cats. I've had a couple disappear very suddenly. The cats did eventually scatter and so did the fox. I don't want to encourage this little guy/girl to come around and start feeding on the cat food nor the cats.

Was he in fact in an attack mode? I am veyr familiar with the behavior of wild raccoons, but foxes are new to me.

Thnaks
Mkh in Idaho

Foxes and cats never got along. They often attack eachother over territorial reasons. I've never seen a fox around here, but Boise is a few minutes off, but my guess is that the fox was guarding its territory and trying to get some food in the process.

As for the fox not being afraid of you, I've heard some people talk about the foxes that live near them and near the Green Belt so it might be used to human presence.

Hi mkh, cats do occasionally attack foxes (I've had a few foxes here that I fear were injured by them, and fatalities have been been recorded) and it is possible, but extremely unlikely, that a fox could attack a very young kitten, but most times when I see foxes and cats together they just ignore each other. A healthy adult cat is more than a match for any fox.

He does sound very much like he was begging, but perhaps he was hoping for something other than kibble! Not sure about the rearing bit, but he might have been testing the cats to see if they'd leave the area. The foxes here sometimes try to exclude other foxes from the garden if they think there's food about. Recently I noticed the ex-alpha male tolerating a vixen outside of a certain range, but if she approached too close he drove her back. His body language while doing this was head low, staring hard.

Good luck with the ferals. Not an easy job.