A red fox that got into food or was fed by people in Kananaksis Country has been relocated to less a busy area.
Provincial conservation officers caught the habituated male fox on July 27 near Sundance Lodges campground in K-Country, and then relocated the animal to an area about 50 kilometres away.
Nick Dykshoorn, conservation officer with Alberta Parks and Environment, said the case highlights the consequences and importance of not feeding wildlife and proper containment of food and garbage.
“We were getting reports of the fox approaching people and it taking several people yelling and chasing it to make it go away,” he said.
“It is unfortunate in this day and age we are still dealing with people feeding animals and wildlife getting into uncontained food.”
The red fox is the second-smallest native member of the wild dog family in Alberta, behind the wolf. Since the red fox is a wary animal and hunts at night, it is seldom seen.
This fox was seen several times travelling back and forth between the Barrier Lake dam area and the Sundance Lodges campground.
“Right from the start, it was either stealing food or people were possibly feeding it,” said Dykshoorn.
The initial plan was to mount an aversive conditioning program on the fox, similar to what is done for bears.
“We had an officer go in and paintball him a couple of times, and more or less put the fear of man into him,” said Dykshoorn. “We actually planned to pepper spray him, but with no collar or tags to track him, the problem was we couldn’t do it consistently enough.”
In the end, a decision was made to relocate the fox.
Conservation officers set up a baited trap, which had a satellite trap transmitter to let them know exactly when the trap door opened, and within five days they had caught the fox.
“We ended up giving him a ride as far away from campgrounds as we can manage in this area,” said Dykshoorn. “We hope he can make a go of it there.”
