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February 24, 2008

Gray fox indicators of change?

By DENNIS APRILL

Global warming and its effect on all aspects of life have been examined thoroughly by the national news media on a worldwide level.

Locally, in our very small corner of the planet, there seems to be a subtle ebb and flow of wildlife that moves back and forth from the milder Champlain and St. Lawrence valleys to the higher terrain. In the past decade there has been an upward movement, perhaps the result of milder than normal winters. This winter, even though snowier than in the recent past, has not had the rock bottom minus-30 and more temperatures for extended periods of time. Wild turkey expansion into the mountains, increasing deer numbers and mourning doves at a lot of feeders all winter are possible short-term effects of milder winters.

One valley animal that has become more noticeable in the peripheral and core Adirondack Mountains is the gray fox. Gray fox have small paws, by canine standards, and in snow their tracks can easily be mistaken for a house cat. And, like the cat, fox tracks will normally be in a straight line, one print in front of the other, with only a short distance between the two because gray fox are small, weighing on average 8 to 11 pounds. A silvery top coat on their back identifies them as gray fox, clearly distinguishing them from the more plentiful, larger red fox.

Smell is an important sense for gray fox, and they rely on it when hunting mice, rabbits and ruffed grouse. Most importantly, they are the only wild canines we have that can climb trees; so if you see cat-like tracks in snow disappearing at the foot of an old apple tree, you may have a hard time deciding if it's a gray fox or a cat, that is unless you see the claws protruding from the paws in the print (the fox).

Because of their smaller size, lower body height and small paws, gray fox normally do not do well in deep snow conditions, so they have traditionally been more associated with the mixed forests and fields of the lowlands, not the Adirondacks. That trend seems to have changed over the past decade.

Recently, I got photos from Linda Lapan, a reader from Lake Placid, who wrote that, in addition to Lake Placid, people are seeing gray fox in Ray Brook and Lake Clear, as well.

Back when deer feeding was not banned, I got a photo with my trail camera for the first time of a gray fox eating an apple, a surprise to say the least. Whether the movement of gray fox to the higher elevations is a new phenomenon or because of trail cameras now identifying them, they seem to be more plentiful. But it is hard to tell. Or, maybe they were always here to some extent.

Trappers may be the most observant when it comes to these matters. A few years ago, I picked up an old Fur-Fish-Game magazine at a second-hand book store. In it was a 1960 article by Martin Maloney who described a 1950s winter trapping adventure in the Cedar Lakes area of the Central Adirondacks, back in the days when trapping seasons, especially for predators like fox, were more liberal. He wrote of his fox trapping that year, "In the fall I captured ten red fox and one gray, for which I was to receive a bounty of five dollars "¦ whereas in the winter I caught eight gray fox and only one red. Why (the difference) remains a mystery of the wilds."

The answer may be that, though things seem to change in the short term, they even out over the long run -- at least when it comes to gray fox.



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