Fox family popular at Metfield
As vandals go, the ones at Dogwood Golf Course are particularly popular. A family of foxes has been living near the Metfield Clubhouse and, while they have a loyal following of photographers and observers, the staff at golf maintenance is not amused.
Foxes dig holes in the greens, Paul Gomez, a supervisor at the Metfield pro shop, explained. The golf maintenance staff fills the holes, but the foxes go back to the same spot and dig again each night.
“They’ll steal golf balls from the greens,” Gomez said, “I’ve seen them myself.”
They usually drop the ball quickly when they realize it’s not
food, but it still disrupts the golf game. At the counter of the golf shop, a picture of the damage has been posted with a written plea to not feed the foxes.
“They’ve lost their fear of humans,” he said.
Members of the POA staff have to clean up after the foxes on a regular basis to keep members from stepping in their feces and tracking it inside the building, he said.
Kelly Parham is often the first staff person to arrive in the early morning. The foxes are there to meet her most days. They are clearly waiting for food, she said, but she’s not tempted to feed them.
“I don’t do wildlife,” she explained. They’re cute to watch, she added, but she prefers to watch them from the safety of her vehicle.
Around 7 p.m. the foxes often have an audience, Karen Wibert said. She lives nearby and made a special trip to the clubhouse parking lot to take pictures of the foxes. She wasn’t the only one, she reported. On the evening she was there, so was another photographer and some other neighbors who came out to watch the evening frolic.
Levi Harrell, a biologist with Arkansas Game and Fish, said it’s always better to watch wildlife from a distance. When a wild animal gets used to people, it can create problems, he said.
“It will raise the likelihood of interaction with pets,” he said. “Foxes will protect their territory.”
There’s also a chance that foxes will transfer parasites, likes fleas and ticks, to domestic animals, and they can also transfer some disease.
Foxes are scavengers, he said. Their natural diet includes mice and small rodents, as well as berries and even some insects. When they are given human food, they can’t digest it the same way, he said, and that can cause problems.
“They should stick to their own food source,” he said, “That’s what their digestive system is accustomed to.”
He’s never heard of a small mammal like a fox attacking a human and generally they’re not interested in attacking a pet, but it could happen. Even small mammals will fight to protect themselves or their young.