We generally take a strong line against anyone slipping across our national borders without the proper legalities, but once in a while, someone just impresses us with their foxy wiles. In just such a case, we learned that on Sunday, a Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) was seeking a better life in the United States, and so stowed away on a shipment of automobiles from the United Kingdom. While we can hardly blame the foxy critter for wanting to trade up to the American lifestyle, he nevertheless came to the attention of the authorities and is now cooling his heels in confinement in the Bronx Zoo.
The Bronx Zoo is currently caring for a stowaway red fox that was discovered in February aboard a ship arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey from Southampton, England. (1/5) pic.twitter.com/DaaRdImaOp
— Bronx Zoo (@BronxZoo) March 12, 2026
Once you've pawsed to look at that, here's the rest of his story.
A red fox somehow slipped onto a cargo ship that traveled from Southampton, England, to New York, where the animal is now in the Bronx Zoo’s care.
The zoo said Wednesday that the 11-pound (5-kilogram) male fox appears healthy after early examinations.
“He seems to be settling in well,” Keith Lovett, the zoo’s director of animal programs, said by phone. “It’s gone through a lot.”
It’s not clear how the animal got on the ship full of automobiles, which left Southampton on Feb. 4, according to the zoo. U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the ship’s crew discovered the furry passenger while traveling to the Port of New York and New Jersey, where the vessel arrived Feb. 18. Officials brought the fox to the zoo the next day. He’s estimated to be 2 years old.
He's doubtlessly just here to catch the mice that American foxes don't want.
Now this fox is indeed a cunning beast, as cunning as though he'd just been appointed as a Professor of Cunning at Oxford University, but he's not alone in that. Foxes are wily critters, smart, adaptable, and omnivorous, and that last is a good idea; being able to eat almost anything is a great survival strategy. I've watched red foxes do their aerial dives into deep snow for mice, I've watched them hot on the trail of a cottontail, and I've seen them stuffing themselves full of ripe blackberries. It's a furtastic way to live.
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Back in the days when I was keeping myself in folding money by running a trapline and hunting furbearers, foxes were the only critter I never managed to catch, except once, when one of my raccoon sets picked off a big male. The only creature smarter and more evasive I've run across was coyotes, which are wily - or Wile E. - indeed. But the fun's in the attempt, especially since it inspires tall tails to tell your friends.
This illegal immigrant is now hanging out in the Bronx Zoo's veterinary unit, apparently under quarantine, and is being fed a diet of "produce, proteins, and some biscuit-like items." What the biscuit-like items may be, I have no idea. He will, in time, be placed in a new, longer-term home, and we're sure he will go to it bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
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