ljbrenner's Favorites

Facing off with an island fox! While were sitting at a picnic table under a grove of eucalyptus trees, watching the fox nosing around, we were surprised to see this snake drop out of a tree and land right between us and the fox! Even though the snake was pretty big, we still expected it to be an easy meal for the fox. The snake realized the danger immediately and curled into a defensive position, tracking the fox with its head as the fox circled around it, and hissing audibly. The fox was cautious and kept its distance for its first several times around the circle, but it eventually dared to move in and take a tentative swipe at the snake before backing away. It repeated this several times, often with the snake striking back at the fox, but it was quite a while before the fox moved in and actually made significant contact with the snake, flipping it up a short distance into the air. Once the fox grew that bold, we really expected it to be over for the snake in short order—but during this whole time, the snake had been inching toward the nearest bushes, and the fox’s window of opportunity was running out. Indeed, the fox’s seemingly easy meal eventually slipped away, as the snake finally made a break for it and disappeared into the bushes before the fox could stop it. The fox followed it into the bushes, but the snake must have escaped down a hole, as we saw the fox nosing and pawing around in the leaf litter under these bushes for several minutes without success. A thrilling and surprising predator-prey interaction to see at such close range! Perhaps the strangest part was how it began—I wouldn’t have expected a gopher snake to be up in a tree at all, and I didn’t see any obvious reason for it to have fallen, such as another predator it was escaping. Maybe it was just taking a shortcut to the ground. It also was interesting how tentative the fox was, given that the snake seemingly would have been a large and valuable meal, and seemingly would have been pretty easy to kill with one quick bite. I wonder if the fox, consciously or instinctively, was accounting for the possibility that the snake might be venomous, even though there are no venomous snakes on this island, as I understand it. I suppose a bite from this nonvenomous snake might still be pretty nasty, though—maybe I underestimate the danger of that, especially for a relatively small animal like the fox. Maybe it’s easy enough for the fox to catch mice and lizards that it wasn’t worth bothering with such a large and unusual prey item.