Adventures
WILDLIFE:
Ants In My Pants by Chuck Graham
I
t was nearly dark when I arrived on a lonely dirt road within the Carrizo Plain. I pulled off behind a cluster of saltbush, grabbed my binoculars, and scanned the immediate region in fading light.
grew hotter, nary a kit fox revealed itself. I packed up and moved on, enjoying the antics of antelope ground squirrels into the early afternoon.
By late afternoon I returned, the heat of the day on the wane. The father and one pup were out, moving between dens maybe 150 feet from each other. Once they dove into a den, I ran out with my camera gear and set up between each den. A couple A week earlier, I discovered this den site hours drifted by with only the ears of the while looking for antelope ground squirrels, pups rising above the openings of the two aplenty on the last of California’s sweeping, prominent den sites. semiarid grasslands. Keen to come back, I made the drive fresh off the Island Packer When I was sure the foxes were down ferry following five days of guiding kayak below, I decided to move to the den with trips at the Channel Islands NP, the Gold- the father and one pup. After repositioning en State’s biodiversity ever-present from myself with both dens in my immediate islands to coastal chaparral and forest to view, I settled in and waited. An hour later, the last of California’s grassland habitat. the father emerged first. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I had parked myself next Methodically, quietly I laid out my sleep- to a red ant hill. Suddenly, while holding ing bag in the back of my truck and had the shutter down while photographing the arranged all my camera gear, so it was ready kit fox, I endured multiple simultaneous to go at 4:30 a.m., a crescent moon allowing bites on both my legs while having to do so just enough light to ditch my headlamp without flinching and holding my camera so not to blow my cover with the foxes. and lens as steady as I could. Near the dens, there was little or no vegetation to conceal myself. I needed to get out Then the dad ran off to its other den 75 there before the family of kit foxes warmed yards to the north. Once he greeted his oththemselves during the rising sun. er pup, I quickly stood and stripped-down, ridding myself of an army of angry ants. At 4 a.m., I was up scanning, and the fox Tiny welts dotted my exposed legs while I pups were already playing, but just briefly. ridded myself of the fire ants. Afterward, As soon as they dove back into their den, I scooped up my gear and picked a better I grabbed my gear, and quietly as I could, spot, the other pup still down below. ran out onto the alkali loam. I picked a spot behind some low-growing shrubs and Maybe it heard me while I furioushuddled in the mid 30-degree temps. ly swiped at those menacing ants on my thighs, its curiosity getting the better of it. As first light dashed the Caliente Moun- Its ears were a dead giveaway, though, as tains in pink and orange hues to the west, they crested the steep mound of dirt surI scanned repeatedly across my immediate rounding the den, the largest of any fox spehorizon. Nothing stirred. As I lowered my cies in North America. However, the pup binoculars and the morning sun warmed was onto me, revealing nothing more than my back and shoulders, I found a kit fox those large ears that can hear a giant kanstaring back at me. It was the female, and garoo rat drumming its feet deep inside its she was only 15 feet away from me. Other burrow. Just as the discomfort from those than doing a 360-degree spin, she remained welts on my legs subsided, like a periscope, calm. After I fired off a few frames, she those kit fox ears slowly descended back gradually returned to her subterranean lair. down into its den, not to be seen again until after the sun went down and shadows had Four more hours drifted by, and as it swept across the Carrizo Plain. About 100 yards to the east, I saw two rambunctious San Joaquin kit fox pups garnering attention from their doting dad near the base of the barren Panorama Hills.
CentralCoastJournal.com
San Joaquin kit fox pups garnering attention from their doting dad and playing. Photos by Chuck Graham
MARCH 2022 | 25
