Every day, we welcome visitors to KERA – from guests for the midday “Think” program to community groups meeting in our building.
But we also get some furry visitors from time to time.
Meet Fox and Friend -- a vixen and her mate (we think). They were frolicking outside the KERA studios Tuesday morning – and Jerome Weeks of Art&Seek caught them on camera.
Once the foxes spotted the camera, they stopped playing around.
Some KERA employees say they’ve spotted foxes around the station, located near Uptown in Dallas, for nearly 20 years.
“We believe they survive moving up and down the whole Reverchon Park/Turtle Creek area,” Weeks says.
Other fox sightings
Foxes have been spotted across North Texas, including recently near Swiss Avenue and in the Casa Linda neighborhood.
Both red and gray foxes can be city dwellers. “Both species readily adapt to urban and suburban park lands, golf course [and] mixed suburban developments,” Dallas Animal Services says.
In 2011, a gray-and-brown fox ran onto the field at SMU’s Ford Stadium during a high school football game – in the middle of a game-winning 35-yard touchdown run with less than a minute to go in the game.
See for yourself:
Fear The Fox: Wild Animal Appears On Dragons' Game-Winning TD from Carroll Dragon TV on Vimeo.
Foxes seem to like stadiums. Last year, several common gray foxes were living in or around Texas Tech’s Jones AT&T Stadium in Lubbock. University officials worked on a plan to remove them.
They love the nightlife
The common gray fox is found throughout most of the state, primarily in the woods of East Texas, the Texas Almanac says. The red fox, which is found across Central Texas, was introduced for sport.
Foxes are primarily nocturnal in urban areas. But they will be active in the day if they feel secure or have an easy way to escape, the DFW Wildlife Coalition says. “People are sometimes surprised to learn that foxes live in their neighborhoods. ... Foxes are not dangerous to humans, except when rabid, and fox rabies are rare.”
A dog or a fox?
Two years ago, Weeks from KERA was walking out of the station late at night when he saw something moving in the station parking lot. He thought it was a dog wanting to play.
Weeks moved closer to the ground, hoping to lure the dog closer to check if it had a collar.
The animal stopped and stood still.
This was no dog. It was a fox.
The fox had enough with this human encounter, so it ran off toward the Katy Trail. (As sly as a fox.)
The next day, the fox was sunning itself in the station’s courtyard.
Naturally, we ask: What Does the Fox Say?
(If you weren't online last year, let us explain: A dance song about foxes went viral last year. The video, called “The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?),” performed by a Norwegian comedy duo, has been viewed more than 370 million times on YouTube.)
Ducks say quack
And fish go blub
And the seal goes ow ow ow
But there’s one sound
That no one knows
What does the fox say?
(Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding! Gering-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!)
So what does the KERA fox say? “It's pledge drive,” Weeks said. “The fox says ‘Support KERA.’”
Here’s the viral video:
But what does a fox really sound like? Here you go:
