Nature of Things | Where have all the foxes gone?

Published 1:30 am Monday, April 6, 2026

By Kimberly Mayer

Journal contributor

Having been at this column for a while, I am sometimes asked where I find my topics. That, of course, is the fun part: going out in the world to pay attention, to see what’s up and write about it. But sometimes it’s what one doesn’t see. And I haven’t been seeing any foxes on island lately.

Practically a figurehead on San Juan Island, the red fox (Vulpes vulpes) species refers to black, silver and brown, as well as a tawny color, all with a white tip on the tail. First introduced by settlers in the early to mid-1900s to reduce the European rabbit population, which in turn had been introduced by settlers in the 1880s, the red fox has become a part of our ecosystem. But why I haven’t seen them lately, I don’t know.

In every other place I had ever lived, foxes were elusive. Like everyone, I became endeared to them in storybooks, but surely the first fox I saw was dead. During mass in winter, full fox pelts were often wrapped around as collars on women’s wool coats and jackets. Seated behind and beside them in the pews at church, I found it painful to deal with their sweet little frozen faces, tiny paws and bushy tails. A more sable and pearls crowd congregated at my father’s protestant church, where the dramatic sweep of a full-length red fox coat came down the center aisle of the sanctuary. The storybook fox. The Catholic fox. The Protestant fox.

But here the fox thrives. The National Park Service on the island asks visitors to keep at least 75 feet from them, though foxes in our neighborhood don’t keep 75 feet from us. In my neck of the woods, they come out of the forest, or emerge from culverts along the side of the road, to walk the road and trails we do. One black fox in particular crossed our deck at the same time every evening for months, pausing close to the house to give eye contact to our dog in the window, who was waiting for her. Dogs and wolves may be the most closely related animals to the Vulpes vulpes, but to me, it has a feline face. But where are they?

Here’s the thing: I thought Avian influenza might be the reason I was not seeing foxes now. An outbreak had occurred this winter, and another outbreak is imminent this spring. Carried on high by contaminated migratory birds, it can affect scavengers such as raccoons and foxes. But Kassie Quackenbush, wildlife rehabilitation manager at Wolf Hollow Wildlife, informs me there had been but two positive cases of Avian influenza among foxes this year. “It lives in the environment already,” she says. And if ever there had been a worse time, it was a few years back when Avian influenza first crossed the Atlantic and worked its way west. So it is not as I feared.

As soon as this is published, foxes will emerge, I’m sure.