Red Fox

Red Fox is one of Kingston's more-than-human neighbours, travelling the city at dawn and dusk. Coyote avoids humans, so Red Fox dens near us under sheds, in culverts, under porches. These kin cards are an invitation to get to know them: who they live in relation with, their gifts, and what they're asking of us.

Red Fox kin card

Chipmunks, mice, voles, and rabbits make up 50% of Red Fox's urban diet. They rarely dig their own den, using Groundhog burrows to raise their kits. Crow tracks them when they hunt, raiding their food caches. In late summer Red Fox eats tomatoes and berries, depositing seeds across their territory.

Red Fox at the planning table

Red Fox knows every garden, culvert, and crow in their territory. Roads kill more of them than anything else. What would a Kingston where Red Fox has safe passage look like? Where they are recognized as a neighbour with a territory, a family, and gifts to offer? This season, this decade, this century.

Get to know Red Fox. Return through the seasons. Record what you observe on iNaturalist.

Notice: Find their den. Look for a worn path, disturbed soil, and scattered feathers or small bones near a shed, porch, or culvert. Watch them hunt, they stand motionless, head cocked, listening for voles under grass or snow, then leap. Read their scat, you'll see berries and seeds in fall, fur and small bones in winter.

Act: Plant berry-producing shrubs: Hawthorn, Elderberry, Sumac. Leave Groundhog burrows. Never use rodenticides, they poison Red Fox. Build a den using an old dog kennel or compost bin lined with straw.

Kingston is drafting a Biodiversity Action Plan. Pin a place that matters to Red Fox.

Get involved: Little Forests Kingston is growing. We're looking for people who want to build relationships with the land and tend them over time. Forest Stewards, Neighbourhood Weavers, Community Scientists, Seed Keepers and more. You don't need to arrive knowing everything. Do any of these roles call to you?