Outfoxed

In my role as a wannabe trapper I’ve grown accustomed to being outsmarted by raccoons, who have frequently escaped with the bait without being captured. However, I’m now being outfoxed by an actual fox.

Here’s what happened last night:

I didn’t catch footage of the sardine abscondishment, but the tin was missing in another video captured shortly after this one.

We’ve seen foxes hunting in our neighborhood almost every night (and occasionally during the day), and I’ve got other videos of them sniffing around the trap, but this is the first time I’ve seen one enter the trap. This one was a lot more cautious than the animation indicates; the realtime footage was 30 seconds.

So, as if I didn’t have enough challenges, I now have to figure out how to keep the bait safe from an animal that’s long to grab the sardines without stepping on the trip plate. I do have a glimmer of a possible inkling leading to the beginning of a potential partial solution, but it involves power tools, MIG welders, and sorcery. In other words…this should be fun!