Possibly endangered baby fox rescued from SF construction site
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A baby fox is currently recovering at Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue in Potrero Hill after construction crews discovered the animal lodged in a pipe at the Mission Rock development site near Oracle Park over the weekend.
Rescue efforts began at around 1:28 p.m. on Saturday, San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Jonathan Baxter told SFGATE. The night before, crews on site heard noises coming from an uninstalled pipe and found the fox’s head peeking out from one end. A security guard placed a french fry next to the pipe in an attempt to lure the fox out, but realized that the animal appeared to be trapped, San Francisco Animal Care and Control spokesperson Deb Campbell said.
They called the agency the next morning, but Meagan Clarke, one of the officers on duty, realized they needed special tools to free the fox and contacted the fire department for backup. Once they arrived, Rebecca Fenson, another officer with Animal Care and Control, said they used baby oil to aid in freeing the fox and took turns pushing and pulling as they tried to safely get her out.
The removal of the animal — no larger than a kitten at about 6 weeks old — took approximately half an hour, Baxter said.
After her rescue, Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue director Lila Travis said she had to give the animal three baths to completely remove the dirt and oil from her fur while she examined her body for any abrasions or injuries.
“She is emaciated and dehydrated but doing surprisingly well considering. Our job is to get her stabilized, hydrated and eating on her own, which she is making easy,” Travis told SFGATE on Sunday afternoon, noting that the fox is currently being fed a recovery diet that includes hard boiled eggs and berries as well as thawed frozen mice to replicate her usual meals in the wild.
More information is needed before the fox can be safely released from the volunteer-run wildlife hospital. Travis said she recently learned the pipes the animal was trapped in had been shipped to San Francisco within the last few days from an undetermined storage location, and knowing where they originated from is vital.
“California has several species of foxes that are endangered and we want to make sure that she is returned to an area that has her species of fox,” Travis said. “We are in the process of trying to get that information from the company.”
If the pipes were shipped in from the Sacramento area, the fox could be an endangered Sacramento Valley red fox, which are strikingly similar to the gray foxes that are native to San Francisco. Travis also suspects that the animal could be a San Joaquin kit fox, another endangered variety, but because of her age, it’s nearly impossible to tell.
“She could be from a different state altogether,” Travis said. “My guess would be that this baby got separated from her mom and ran into the pipe for shelter. Then the pipe was shipped to San Francisco for the construction project and the baby was trapped and tried to get out through the tiny port but got stuck.”
Reports of red and gray fox sightings are becoming more common around San Francisco, Campbell said, noting a recent Nextdoor thread in which one individual said they found a fox living in their yard.
“They called us to see if they should do anything in particular, or if we thought it was sick. It looked like a relaxed and happy fox enjoying a nice backyard,” Campbell said. “We always tell people not to feed them, just like with any wildlife.”
This is a developing story and will be updated with more information as it becomes available.
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