Baby Fox

Whoa, that right there is a Baby Fox. Come here Working with animals can be incredibly difficult, especially. When you were hoping to encounter them in the wild. Have an up-close interaction, that is captured on camera. The crew and I have visited many locations throughout filming Breaking Trail. If you have ever wondered which location has been the most difficult so far. I would have today it was Alaska. This far northern state is considered to be the last true frontier. Trust me when I say, the environment posts incredible challenges. From the vast lakes, which we explored by kayak, to the rushing glacial melt streams. That was nearly impossible to forge, without getting soaked by icy, cold water. Then there were the incredibly dense forests.

 Built with ancient trees and thick plants. this habitat provided the perfect hiding places for formative wildlife. So, I climbed on top of this stump here, searching the forest, check out this vantage point. Wow, that is just trees as far as the eye can see. So, what becomes the game plan when finding animals in the wilds next to impossible? Simple, we work with ones that have been rescued or raised in captivity. Today we will be working at Steve Kroc Schell’s Wildlife Sanctuary. Which is home to many different mammal species, including moose, weasels. Even a wolverine. In my opinion, mammals are the most difficult animals to work with. Because they very rarely want to be held, and getting them to sit still for the cameras is next to impossible. And while in the past have worked with giant grizzly bears, ferocious badgers, and spring. Loaded bobcats, nothing would challenge me. Crew more than an incredibly adorable Baby Fox named Lupine. One of the toughest things about working with a fox that a fox wants to move around as much as possible. So right now, we're inside Lupine's enclosure. And you can see that this looks completely natural, you can barely even tell that we are in her enclosed environment, and here she comes, Lupine... She's very excited to have us in here...Come here, come here you. As soon as she starts to calm down. I have a good feeling. She'll probably come close for the cameras, but at the moment. We have to let her get acclimated to us being in here.

There you are, are you young one come hang out with me? Right about now, I’m sure you are wondering, what in the world are those noises Coyote is making? Well, they're fox calls that Steve taught me. You see, Steve has the uncanny ability to speak with animals. Now, Steve, I hear you making this little sound... Sounds like a turkey noise. Well, I'm talking mink language now.- That's mink? Yeah, yeah, mink language, you might try it.- Okay. Got to go faster. Pretty good, pretty good. And he said that if I can master the language of the fox. I would likely become one of the skulk, which is a group of foxes. There you are, hello. Are you having a good sprint? What do you think? How about you and I have a conversation about your 12 vocal calls. I know you have 12things to say to me. My fox lingo was a bit off, so then we tried a fox toy. Just a simple ducking tied to a stick. That is what you call fishing for a fox right there. Whoop, you almost had it. I'm doing my best to keep her attention. Hi, good afternoon. 

Keeping a fox’s attention in front of the camera is far easier said than done. And before we knew it, Lupine was back to running laps around her enclosure. Hey, Lupine, come on back here. Next, we tried to gather up-close to the cameras by pretending my hand was a mouse. What I'm going to do right now is turn my hand into a mouse. I’m going to actually put it down in this hole, and bury it in the grass trying to make some mouse noises, rustle this around. See if I can get Lupine to come and pounce on me, you ready? Yup.- Let's try this Oh, yup, it worked. Own, she bit right down to the tip of my finger, only to find that it isn’t a mouse. Well, that was pretty cool, all right, well, apparently can speak mouse. Haven’t quite yet learned how to speak fox. We had some pretty success at first until she figured out that she couldn't eat my fingers. How cool was that? Every single time she thinks my finger's a mouse. That’s such a great hunting instinct for this baby animal, to be able to learn that this is how I catch mice. It is very, very difficult to hold onto this Baby Fox because she wants to run around in the enclosure. So, one tactic I used with the ocelot was to take my sock off and get its attention with that. Lupine, here we go, got her attention. OH boy, look at that, oh, the sock is good. It worked wonders with the ocelot in Costa Rica, so, I figured; why not try it with a fox? Get that sock.

 Now, if I was one of her littermates. I found something out there in the wild, like a hunter who left a sock behind, this would be a great toy to play with. This fox is incredibly playful, and at this age, that’s natural. But even adult foxes you’ll see running around out in fields, prancing, hopping, playing fun games. Anything that she can potentially gather claws and her teeth on is fair game. And while tug-of-war seemed to hold her attention at first, like any curious Baby Fox. She soon lost interest and went back to going everywhere except in front of the main camera. Mario, you made a buddy. You're so cute, you’re such a cutie.- Well, she's over there, rolling around on her back with Mario. He's got that big, fuzzy microphone on the front of his camera. I think she’s attracted to the shininess of the lens, or, the microphone cover. It’s almost impossible to keep her in one spot. I’m going to put my bootblack on, and one of my favorite things to-dos. The animals that we work with are to follow them around with a Go-Pro camera. So I've got the Go-Preset up on a gimbal, and let's see if we can track down the baby red fox.

The red fox is one of the most elusive animals in the world. And I would say in my lifetime I've probably only ever seen five foxes in the wild. And even when you do see them, it’s only for a brief second, so if you do happen to encounter a fox, consider yourself lucky. This right here, getting' to play with baby one, who, it’s exhausting. If there's one animal that has worn me out, it’s the baby red fox. This thing's got more energy than any animal we’ve ever worked with. For nearly 15 minutes, we attempted to follow. Lupine around her enclosure, and for a brief moment. She rolled over on her back for a belly rub. Oh, there she goes, that's about the closest we've been all day. Pretty cool, palling' around with a baby red fox. I’m Coyote Peterson, be brave, stay wild, we'll see yon the next adventure. Like I said in the beginning, filming with mammals is incredibly difficult. After two hours of following this fox in circles, the crew and I call it a wrap. Getting to pal around with Lupine was one of my fondest memories from Alaska. And if there's one thing I'm confident we can all agree on, it's that this baby fox is about as adorable as it gets. If you thought using a sock to play with a fox was savvy, make sure to go back. See how well this tactic worked when I got up-close with a wild ocelot. And don't forget, subscribes you can join mean the crew on this season of Breaking Trail.