The Red Fox was a frequent visitor and many people who visit the beach year round recall seeing this fun loving animal who many have said was as friendly and fun loving as any dog.
Minutes before its death, the fox had been loping along the dunes, hunting for food and also accepting from people who would feed the fun loving cutie, said witness Christina Daly, 31, a Glen Oaks photographer who had been trailing the creature in the snow to snap pictures.
“He’d run up on the dune and look around and when another car would come up, he would run down to that one,” she said. “I thought it was adorable.
Minutes before its death, the fox had been loping along the dunes, hunting for food and also accepting from people who would feed the fun loving cutie, said witness Christina Daly, 31, a Glen Oaks photographer who had been trailing the creature in the snow to snap pictures.
“He’d run up on the dune and look around and when another car would come up, he would run down to that one,” she said. “I thought it was adorable.
According to reports a red fox that frequently roamed the area of Long Island's Robert Moses State Park was found fatally shot by a man with a crossbow, state officials are now asking for the public’s help in finding the killer. Ms. Daly stated a balding man standing by the open trunk of Jaguar told her he saw a pair of foxes, pointing to the way she had just come, when she looked she immediatly noticed a patch of bright red fur under a tree just ahead of him.
Parks police took the arrow and the body. Daly photographed the Jaguar as it drove off, and park police told her they’re using her photo to track down the driver, she said
State parks officials said hunting foxes and killing them are illegally on park land. Authorities typically warn against feeding or engaging with wild animals. More than 20 red foxes have made the park their home, and over the decades, they’ve lost their fear of the humans who swarm the beaches during the summer. “They’re tamer than dogs,” said Perry Waaland, 55, of Melville, who has been visiting the park several times a month for years. The dead fox was a mature female tagged last April, one of 11 tagged so far as part of a Virginia Tech study into red foxes’ impact on Fire Island’s piping plovers, a threatened species, said Sarah Karpanty, an associate professor in charge of the red fox part of the project. “She was a fox that was highly territorial,” Karpanty said. “She was living in an area that was intensively used by people.” Related Stories (Opens New Window)
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