Foxes like the one seen at a local school often are looking for food, not people.
Illustration via Adobe Stock
Most of the time, especially for those of us who work a 9-to-5 job, it can be easy to forget that we share spaces with a host of critters beyond squirrels and songbirds. When encounters do occur outside natural areas, it can be alarming — such as when a red fox was seen several times in October outside Springfield Park Elementary School in Glen Allen.
Each sighting prompted what SPES Principal Tracy Spain called a “reverse evacuation” in a message to parents, which resulted in “frequent disruptions to daily recess and outdoor activities.” Spain said in another message that while Henrico animal control personnel attempted to capture and remove the fox, “they were unsuccessful and [it] retreated to woods toward Springfield Park,” which is connected to the school by a trail. According to division spokesperson Elaine Cox, a fox was not seen again until Dec. 4; no students encountered it.
The wooded suburban area makes sense for a fox, according to Mike Fies, a retired wildlife biologist with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. With pups raised by the fall, they’re no longer using a den and are “just kind of laying around on top of the ground.” The school, park and surrounding neighborhoods also provide food via bird feeders, fruit trees, outdoor pet food containers or trash bins. "As long as there’s something for it to eat,” he says, “it’s going to hang around that vicinity, but I would suggest that that’s not dangerous to humans.”
At a school, the danger “wouldn’t be so much that you’d be concerned that the fox would come up and harm the child,” Fies says. “It’d be more likely that the curious child would approach the fox and try to pet it or get too close, and then maybe an adult fox with some young might nip at the kid.
“If you see any indication that it’s aggressive in any kind of way, which is extremely rare for foxes unless they have rabies,” he says, contact DWR’s Virginia Wildlife Conflict Helpline at 855-571-9003 so the state can arrange for the animal to be removed.
More information and tips on resolving conflicts are available at dwr.virginia.gov/wildlife/nuisance.
