NARRATOR: On North America's east coast,
one little creature is living large.
Cute and cuddly,
fierce and wild,
red foxes have made a home
on the back doorstep of the human world.
On the jagged coast of Canada's eastern shore,
a delicate and diverse ecosystem
thrives on the fringes of the continent.
Welcome to the Wild Wild East.
Prince Edward Island.
Set in the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
Canada's smallest province
represents less than one percent
of the nation's landmass.
Its beaches and rural beauty
make the Island a popular destination
for tourists from across Canada
and the rest of the world.
Charlottetown is the province's capital.
Here over the past two decades,
one wild animal
has abandoned the Island's rolling fields
for the luxuries of the city life.
Red foxes live side by side with humans.
Where there's people, there's food.
And although PEI may be Canada's smallest province,
it's also its most densely populated.
Foxes have also made good use
of man-made infrastructure.
In recent years, dens have begun popping up
all over the Island.
Sheds and decks provide
a perfect cover for foxes looking to hide.
These man-made structures bring foxes
a little too close to people's homes.
Many locals see the fox as a nuisance.
Some have even taken the issue into their own hands,
trapping and killing bothersome foxes.
But for the fox, there's high reward
for high risk.
These sly little creatures have grown adept
at evading the human predator.
Like it or not,
foxes have staked a claim here
in Charlottetown's backyard.
Across the Island,
one family has taken up residency
right here along the beach.
It may not look like much for waterfront property,
but it's a perfect home to one family,
or skulk, of red foxes.
Hidden amongst the brush and sand
is the family's front door step.
Here, for the next several weeks,
adult mature foxes
will live amongst their newly born young,
until the kits are fully grown.
It's the beginning of spring
and these fox kits are just a couple of months old.
They were born deaf, blind and toothless,
and have a long way to go
until they strike out on their own.
Until that day, they require
almost constant parental supervision.
Mom is the centre of the fox family.
Keeping an eye out for her kits
and protecting the den.
While dad spends the day hunting,
mom's top priority for the next several months
is rearing up her pups.
Thankfully, mom has some help
from another adult female fox.
She's the kit's older sister,
but really she's more like an aunt.
At the end of last summer,
her brothers and sisters went to find mates
and establish their own territory.
But this aunt decided to stay behind for the winter.
It was a hard winter for the aunt.
The patch on her side is a sign of mange.
The parasitic skin disease is common with foxes.
It's extremely itchy and can cause fur loss.
With her mange now on the mend,
the aunt will look to begin a family of her own,
once her little brothers and sisters are all grown up.
Mom happily accepts the help
of another female adult fox.
These kits are growing up nicely.
They're about six weeks old,
and have already shed their brown fur
for their distinctive red coat.
All grown up,
foxes are about the size of a small border collie,
weighing up to nine kilograms.
Life is short for the fox.
These kits will live up to five years on average,
so there's little time to waste.
The males within the litter
will be looking to find a mate
and establish their own territory
by the end of the summer.
Down on the beach, the kits spot a surprise
mom's brought in from the human world.
Trinkets like this are a welcome relief
to the teething pups.
But of course these artifacts are no match
for the fox's scissor-like jaws.
These sharp molars in the back of the fox's mouth
allow them to break up and digest
bones and tough meat.
These curious kits have no problem digging up trouble,
that's for sure.
But, under Mom's watchful eye,
the kits are free to be kits.
It isn't hard to see why some Island residents
are growing annoyed with the foxes.
Many locals are walking around with just one shoe.
As the tide crawls in, and the day wears on,
the family moves up from the beach.
For momma and auntie fox,
it's a full time job watching over
these hyperactive young'uns.
This play fighting is more than just fun and games.
These warriors-in-training are practicing
the signature moves of adult male foxes.
When protecting their territory,
foxes will often come to blows.
Foxes fight on their hind legs.
They try to tower over one another,
and then flank their foes.
Even at this young age, this fox fight club
determines what the social "pecking order" will be
once these kits reach maturity.
For now though, the biggest fights
are over a sip of mom's milk.
It may look crowded under there,
but this litter of five kits is about average.
It's not unusual for a vixen to give birth
to over 10 baby foxes in a single year.
With mom protecting her kits at the den,
off goes dad
to hunt down the family's next meal.
Both parents do their share to take care of the kits
until they reach maturity.
This couple's courtship began over the winter months.
Huddled together underground,
they welcomed their litter with the coming of spring.
Foxes are generally monogamous,
but not always.
Males may have more than one mate.
But these foxes are united by a common purpose.
Mom does her duty at the den by protecting the kits,
and dad's responsible for hunting,
and providing food.
In a field behind the University of Prince Edward Island,
we catch up with another group of foxes.
This skulk has made a home just off the beaten path.
Only a month old,
these field foxes are a few weeks younger
than their waterfront cousins.
You can see they still have their soft brown coats.
As they wait patiently by the den,
daddy fox combs his property for food.
He has been marking his territory
by urinating on the ground.
These "scent markings" are a warning
to other foxes to stay away.
The best times to forage are in the early morning
or late evening.
It's cooler then and there are fewer humans around.
Dad has made this territory home
and laid claim to all the food here.
In other words: No trespassers allowed.
Suddenly, in the middle of this fox's hunt,
an intruder is heard.
As a final assertion of his dominance,
dad sprays a scent marking on the ground.
From the sidelines, the kits watch closely.
It won't be long
until they'll need to provide for themselves.
After a little searching,
the hunt uncovers a tasty meadow vole,
one of the fox's favorite treats.
In the wild, small mammals, birds and even insects
make up the bulk of the foxes' diet.
Foxes are extremely possessive of their food,
and will bury it away in their dens,
or in caches they tag with scent markings.
The sneaky little creatures
are keen to quickly hide food away
from other nearby animals.
There's mouths to feed back at the den,
and so the dad provides.
Still getting used to solid food,
this little kit can't decide if he should eat this thing,
or play with it.
The tide coming and going each day
offers a special protection for our waterfront foxes.
Any intruders better know how to swim.
Red foxes will dig dens into the sides of hills, mountains,
slopes or simply straight down
into the flat ground.
Dens are dug inward at a 45 degree angle.
They are about the length of three sofas.
Inside the den, there are two main areas,
one for food storage
and a spot where the foxes can huddle together
during the long winter months.
Something, or someone
has spooked the waterfront foxes
and so they're moving to a new home
just down the beach.
Living close to humans poses many threats to the fox.
Occupying multiple dens is a sly evasion strategy.
The fox knows this territory like the back of its paw.
Back at the field fox's den on the other side of the Island,
this little kit spots something delicious.
Looks like mom's got a hold of a chicken dinner
to store away for later.
Foxes' love for chicken has been getting them
into trouble with farmers for centuries.
Unaware of the feast hiding back at the den,
these two kits are practicing
sniffing out a meal of their own.
Soon the foxes will begin hunting and foraging
together as a family.
So it's never too soon to learn
the fox's characteristic pounce.
This move will come in handy
when the fox is hunting out its own meals.
In a couple of weeks, everyone will be responsible
for finding his or her own food.
But for now at least, most meals are on mom.
Kits nurse for two months.
Foraging and hunting are essential skills
the foxes must master
before they're fully independent.
Foxes reach adulthood by seven months.
With his siblings still on the bottle,
this guy experiments with solid food.
Behind his family's back, our little chicken poacher
lives up to his reputation.
It may be a cliché,
but that doesn't mean it's not delicious.
But alas, his secret is short lived,
and the other kits run to find out
what their little brother's gotten into.
Back along the beach, these waterfront foxes
have switched to a new den,
but their second home is no further
from the watchful eye of humans.
While there are a lot of perks
to living side-by-side with people,
it also presents a danger.
People have been hunting the red fox for sport
since medieval times.
During the Renaissance, it became a noble pursuit,
and dogs were bred specifically
to run down and kill foxes.
Foxes are hunted primarily for their fur
and their bushy tails have been considered
a hunters trophy for centuries.
Living close to humans has made the red fox
an easy target of derision.
Attitudes toward the animal vary
throughout time and between cultures.
Foxes may be a nuisance,
but many Islanders enjoy the fluffy little beasts.
Currently on the Island,
hunting and trapping foxes is still practiced,
albeit highly regulated.
Today, humans remain the fox's greatest predator.
With the summer months approaching,
and the kits progressing toward maturity,
it's likely this aunt will move on
to establish her own family.
Though groups of foxes may share a territory,
the foxes tend to stick to themselves.
Here on the Island, where food is abundant,
there's less competition for land.
Still, they hunt and forage alone,
and with the exception of mating and raising their young,
they spend the majority of their lives
surviving on their own.
And so springtime is a special time of year,
when the typically solitary creatures
are united by a common purpose,
raising their young
and ensuring the survival of their species.
Nobody knows exactly how many foxes
live here on Prince Edward Island today.
Researchers are watching 50 dens
in and around Charlottetown alone.
Those are just the ones we know about.
The University of Prince Edward Island
has been studying the foxes over the last few years.
They put out a call to the community
to track fox sightings.
In two years they received
over 2,500 reports.
Like it or not, the fox
is here to stay on Prince Edward Island.
Across the world and throughout history,
foxes have lived at the frontier
between the human world,
and the untamed wilderness.
They star in so many folk stories
and fairy tales because they're clever
and cunning,
graceful and sly.
Foxes have one foot in our world,
and one in the Wild Wild East.
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