A Red fox is relishing a quieter home in Johnston Canyon with fewer people venturing up the trail! With the closure of the Bow Valley Parkway due to COVID-19, White Mountain Adventures is one of the few companies allowed to take people into Johnston Canyon Icewalk. I’ve been guiding in the canyon for over 20 years, with this being my first winter of spotting a Red fox there. Luckily, we’ve been able to get some amazing photos!
Red fox, Vulpes vulpes (dog family) aren’t that common in Banff National Park, so to see one is quite a treat! They are occasionally found in grassy places and open woods, nocturnal, shy and seldom reported. Red fox have “phases” in colouration, based on genetics. 50-75% are brown or cinnamon on top, white below, black-backed ears, and black on the front of their legs; known as the common phase. A quarter to a third of the population are a mottled buff and dark brown (like a tortoise-shell), with a line of black down the back that meets a line of black across its shoulders, forming a cross-like figure; known as the cross fox. Less common at around 17% of the population are the silver fox, which are black with white-tipped guard hairs on the head, back and tail that give their coat a silvery look. Their ears and legs are black with a dark muzzle and black circles around their eyes. All phases have a white tip on their long, bushy tails, which they wrap around their bodies to keep warm.
What would a Red fox eat in Johnston Canyon? They’re solitary animals during fall and winter, so their exceptional sight, smell, and hearing make them great hunters of small rodents like Deer mice. Unlike other mammals, they can hear low-frequency sounds under the snow and in the ground. They also eat Snowshoe hare, birds, berries, plants, fruits, and when available, carrion from wolf kills. With their home range at 3.5-8.5km squared (Johnston Canyon trail to the Upper Falls at 3km), the Red fox is definitely migrating in and out of the canyon to find food; especially wolf kills from the Bow Valley wolf pack. Even if a Red fox isn’t hungry, they will continue to hunt and store food for its next meal.
We don’t know if the Johnston Canyon Red fox is a male or female. If it’s a female, she’s ready to mate sometime between mid-January and mid-March, choosing a mate from many suitors. She and her mate will use last-year’s burrow, or they’ll find an abandoned beaver or badger burrow, or dig a new home themselves. The young, known as whelps or kits, are born from late April to early May, of usually 5 and up to 10! Foxes in the same litter can be different phase colourations too.
For us to see this Red fox sunning itself in the morning sun, not concerned about our presence, is odd. We’ve learned from the owners of Johnston Canyon Resort that it has been around the canyon area for 4 years, so sadly it has become habituated to humans probably through intentional and unintentional feeding.
If you see a Red fox, quickly get a photo, give it lots of space, and count yourself lucky that you got to see the fox trot…away!
Kristi Beetch
ACMG Day hiking and Winter Travel Guide
IGA Professional and Master Interpreter