Plants & Animals Wildlife lovers can find this secretive, bushy-
tailed and black-footed furbearer statewide. A few years ago, a
fellow named Kevin Brinker called to ask me if I would be
interested in photographing a family of red foxes he had
discovered residing under his barn near New Haven. I’d only seen
a few red foxes in my lifetime so I was eager just to get a
glimpse of the critters, let alone photograph them. The
following weekend I stationed myself near Brinker’s barn in a
hunting blind and waited to see what daybreak would bring.
Shortly after sunrise, a tiny fox pup came out into the open and
stared at my blind with youthful curiosity. The click of my
camera shutter frightened it back into the shadows of the barn
but it quickly returned for another look and soon became
oblivious to my intrusion. Over the next two years I had many
more encounters with the foxes at Brinker’s, but I’ll always
remember seeing that first pup like it was just yesterday. The
red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is found statewide but i