Orphaned baby foxes released after receiving care in Saratoga wildlife facility

"The foxes perform several ecological services; the main one is pest control. Gray foxes keep gopher, vole, ground squirrel, rat and mice populations in check. They also have an omnivore diet that consists of fruits and grubs and spread seeds for forest growth and remove carcasses in the environment, Kinney said. They're also one of the few larger mammals that can climb trees."

"The baby foxes were taken to the Saratoga facility intake center 48 hours later. "It's not usually very common because fox parents are really attentive to their young, but this is a pretty populated area in terms of people, and I think there's just too much going on within that area that the parents never came back," Kinney said. The baby foxes were about five weeks old, dehydrated and flea-ridden when they arrived at the Wildlife Care Center."

Six orphaned gray fox kits were found in April after their den was likely disrupted during tree maintenance in Alum Rock Park and were taken to the Wildlife Care Center in Saratoga. The kits arrived dehydrated, flea-ridden, barely able to open their eyes and with small puncture wounds. Staff cared for the siblings in a remote enclosure for about four months before releasing them back into Alum Rock Park on Aug. 20. Gray foxes are native to the Bay Area but have declined statewide due to habitat encroachment. They provide pest control, disperse seeds, remove carcasses and can climb trees.

Read at The Mercury News