Wildlife Callers

 

Here’s a practical how-to habitat guide for anyone looking to call more grey fox.

 

I was recently asked to provide some easy to understand and easy to use information and advice to anyone wishing to call predators for photography or harvest. Since education and useful information is the very reason for the Wildlife Callers’ Blog, I have designed this post with that end in mind. The subject “Calling Predators” taken as a whole, is a very broad topic, thus I’ve chosen grey fox calling for this post. My next post will include advice on calling sounds and I’ll include video of grey fox being called.

When I think of calling grey fox, I think of quick responses to the call, lots of responders, and hard charging responders that will come right back if you shoot, miss, and quickly start calling again. These lionhearted little guys are the first predator I called successfully, the first animal I skinned for monetary gain, and the first predator I sought when I first took my six-year-old son calling. My entire twenty-three years of calling has had plenty of these feisty predators in it and always will.

I once called seven grey fox on one stand and I routinely call two and three foxes at one location. On my last trip I called in six of them on four, fifteen-minute stands. These days, I normally don’t shoot them (except with a video camera). Monetarily, the fur isn’t worth the hassle and for those of you who don’t know me,  I’m normally calling for mountain lions and shooting a fox might jeopardize the bigger prize.

Some people who have accompanied me on a fox calling trip, walked away with the impression that calling a boatload of them is easy. They think I’ll just start blowing on my Johnny Stewart or fire up the ol’ Wildlife Tech and fellas, get outta the way—the fox floodgates have opened! Truth be known, it’s not quite that easy. It’s taken me years to get my list of honey-holes mapped out, and now that I know what I’m looking for, I can usually call a whole bunch of them in foreign territory. The secret is reading evidence and knowing when they’re around.

Let’s begin with photos of “good looking” fox territory. I say good looking, because good looking fox habitat and habitat that actually is good might not be one in the same. I know of many areas that look like they ought to hold the grey fox mother lode, but after numerous calling attempts over several seasons—nothing!  Finding an area that looks good is step one. In order for the area to be good, the area has to give up her secrets to you in the form of sign (scat & tracks), which I’ll cover shortly.

 

Here are a couple of photos of one of the hottest fox calling areas on Planet Earth. I’ve caused more than one fox stampede in this place.

 

 

 

 

As you look at this, keep in mind this is the Arizona desert. Take note of the lush and green condition of the vegetation. Also note the boulder-strewn landscape that forms thousands of little dens for fox to live in and places for mice, snakes, birds, and other prey animals to live and breed. This area is known for its ground water, thus the plants look great, there are plenty of small pools of water to drink from, and the prey species thrive. This habitat is awesome looking grey fox habitat. But is it really good?

In these next three photos, I’m showing just some of the fox sign in this area. There’s so much of it at every turn, I could put hundreds of photos on this post. Here are three scat photos:

 

This is your standard grey fox scat. It’s full of Manzanita berries and other assorted vegetation/seeds.

 

 

This next one is what I call a scat pile. You’ll readily recognize that more than one fox is dropping a bomb here. I’m told this is territory-marking behavior. The smaller scat is full of berries too, and is most likely from a kit fox or a juvenile grey fox. These piles are great clues because they tell you that more than one fox is running around in the area.

 

 

And, last but not least, this is another scat pile, but in this photo you’ll see some jet black segmented scat with rodent hair & bone fragments in it and NO signs of any vegetation. The fox scat is easy to recognize with all of the red berries in it. The black scat is from a bobcat, which is not surprising, as they like the same prey rich areas that the foxes do. The bobcat scat was pretty sun-baked. I flipped one over to demonstrate the black coloration that would indicate something more freshly dropped.

 

 

You know…

 

I never thought I’d be writing about poo. However, these are the things that I look for when I intend to call grey fox. This area has all of the key indicators in place. Not only does it look like a perfect place for a fox to call home, it has all of the signs that many of them do. There’s also sign that some bobcats call it home as well—and we all like calling those cats!

 

I didn’t see any lion sign in the area, which is something that I always look for. I’ll be making another post as soon as I have a good lineup of mountain lion sign to share.

 

Good luck finding your honey-holes. The grey fox will always be a favorite critter of mine, and I’m sure that you’ll have a blast calling them once you’ve identified where to call them—lots and lots of them.

My next post will be some grey fox video – stay tuned.

 

 

I’ll see you in the field,

 

Mark Healy

 

mark@wildlifecallers.com

 

PS. Don’t hesitate to post a comment or ask a question.