_Specimens examined_ (6).--1 mi. S, 5 mi. E Ladner, 3; 3 mi. S, 12 mi. E
Ludlow, 1; 2 mi. W Camp Crook, 3200 ft., 1; 4 mi. S, 1 mi. E Buffalo, 1.
This fox was present, although apparently not abundant, in Harding
County in the early part of this century (Visher, 1914:90). He reported
knowledge of "two or three" that had been trapped in the county and
further noted a report that red foxes were "not rare along the Lone
Pines." Visher's paper evidently was overlooked by Hall and Kelson
(1959: map 447), who did not include the western half of South Dakota
within the distribution of the species. The only foxes observed by our
field parties were two seen in July of 1970--one an immature animal held
captive in Camp Crook and remains of another that had been killed on a
county road about 18 miles north of that place. Five specimens that had
been killed by hunters were acquired in March 1963 and an isolated skull
was picked up west of Camp Crook in 1970.
There is a continuing demand from sheep ranchers in the county that
foxes be controlled, yet this species seems to maintain considerably
higher populations than does the coyote. According to federal trapper
Robert Kriege (personal communication), dens of the red fox have been
found principally in the badlands and in certain grassland areas, but
rarely in the buttes proper. Records kept by Mr. Kriege indicate that
litters are born in mid-March in Harding County. He estimated that over
the past few years he has examined whelps from an average of 50 dens a
year, but that more than 170 dens were found in the spring of 1963.
~Ursus americanus americanus~ Pallas, 1780