Friday Harbor, Washington: It surprises people to learn that there’s a population of red foxes on remote San Juan Island, up in the northwestern-most corner of the Lower 48 states. They’re not a native species, but they’ve been here long enough that they’ve carved a niche into the ecosystem and are now a celebrated component of the island’s phenomenal wildlife.
It’s believed that foxes were first brought here by settlers in the 1920s and ’30s, possibly with stock taken from farms where they were raised for furs. The intention was to use them to thin out the burgeoning rabbit population (also an invasive species brought by settlers). It didn’t really work, but the foxes spread to pretty much every corner of the island. And in 2021, it seemed, they were flourishing. They could be seen not only on the southern end, where they originally were based, but were highly visible on the island’s western side and in its agricultural zone in the center.
Only a few years ago, in the early 2000s, the fox population was faring poorly, with high disease and malnutrition rates. Naturalists began figuring out that the foxes had become dependent on humans feeding them from roadsides and the like, and then starved when the tourists (who come here mainly in summer) disappear.
So the island community began an active and vigorous awareness campaign to get people to stop feeding them. Eventually, the foxes stopped begging and returned to hunting the voluminous numbers of mice and voles (and sometimes rabbits) that live on the island.
Their numbers appear to be flourishing, and moreover, they really look so much healthier now than what we were seeing a decade ago. The breeding females—who do appear gaunt when nursing, but seem to return to health when their kits are weaned—are producing very healthy-looking packs of offspring.
One of the nuances of this fox population is that there are a number of melanistic red foxes—that is, foxes that have black or silverish coats. They are scattered throughout the population, and it’s not unusual to see a melanistic mother with bright red babies, and vice versa.
The best time to see the kits is in spring. But foxes’ coats really become splendid in the late fall and early winter. Regardless the time of year, they are always a delight to see and observe.
