Fox tries to make his acquaintance with a dog
- Thread starter Lilavati
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That is soooo cool! It's cool how you see the fox demonstrating all the same kinds of calming signals that dogs do...the yawn, the lying down, the curving around etc. He looked interested, but the dog didn't want any part of it. It would have been really interesting had they gotten around to making friends.
That's so awesome! It's really interesting how much alike the fox's maneurisms are to Romeo's lol and the calming signals are interesting as well
In most places, that kind of thing would concern me. Some animals that get rabies experience those kind of night/day behavioral changes (animals approaching people that really shouldn't be or even acting "friendly") but in parks.. I've seen quite a few foxes who are healthy but just really used to people and dogs and have kind of lost the fear of them and try to interact.
I think if the fox was really trying to attack the dog.. the body language wouldn't have been so calm or curious.
In most places, that kind of thing would concern me. Some animals that get rabies experience those kind of night/day behavioral changes (animals approaching people that really shouldn't be or even acting "friendly") but in parks.. I've seen quite a few foxes who are healthy but just really used to people and dogs and have kind of lost the fear of them and try to interact.
I think if the fox was really trying to attack the dog.. the body language wouldn't have been so calm or curious.
I'm not seeing any forward kind of positioning. He's quite appeasing. To me, it looks like he's very curious...don't know if he wants to be friends, but looks interested, yet cautious. He continues throughout to show calming signals and signs of not wanting to take the upper hand... licking the lips, yawning, lying down, lowering his head, turning his head away, arcing his body, staying rather low, sniffing other things, chewing something, etc. Then he looks like he's just giving up and goes away. The dog looks like, "waaa?"
I don't know much about foxes either, but I suspect he's probably an adolescent or possibly younger.
I am inclined to agree with vandog on this one.
The fox is certainly cautious, but I would say that is merely a combination of unfamiliarity with the potential prey item and its size. Foxes and coyotes both will avoid direct confrontation prior to engaging with a potentially dangerous food source--instead approaching slowly and often even engaging in "play" behaviors (though I have only ever seen coyotes do this) prior to becoming more classically predatory.
I am a little alarmed that the dog owner did nothing to chase away the fox! The dog is clearly not very savvy and would have certainly been at risk for injury.
The fox is certainly cautious, but I would say that is merely a combination of unfamiliarity with the potential prey item and its size. Foxes and coyotes both will avoid direct confrontation prior to engaging with a potentially dangerous food source--instead approaching slowly and often even engaging in "play" behaviors (though I have only ever seen coyotes do this) prior to becoming more classically predatory.
I am a little alarmed that the dog owner did nothing to chase away the fox! The dog is clearly not very savvy and would have certainly been at risk for injury.
That sure could be. Yeah, I wouldn't want to leave my dog all vulnerable like that either. If the fox were to be sizing him up, that would be creepy. He did look like he was offering those signals though, which confuses me if it were a prey- sizing up situation...lots of appeasement gestures, but if that's a "ploy" they use... (?) It could also be a fox that is very use to seeing humans and dogs and isn't seeing the dog as prey. We had coyotes where I use to live (not in Idhao, but near here where I live now) that would become friendly with some of the neighbors' dogs. One, in particular would take walks down the middle of the private roads we had in our development of 5 acre pieces. My best friend's dog was a Lab mix...rather smallish and they took walks together through the neighborhood, then they'd both part and go their separate ways. Strange, huh. Well, and like someone mentioned...what about the possibility of rabies? That would be scary.