An adult male interacting with a juvenile red fox in an outdoor natural setting, marked by shades of brown, orange, and green lighting.

9:19

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The baby red fox who wore out Coyote Peterson

Name: The baby red fox who wore out Coyote Peterson
Uploaded: 2016-11-01T13:00:03Z
Duration: 9 min 19 s
Description: Coyote Peterson has one boot off and a sock in his hand, and he's using it to lure in a predator. The predator is a baby red fox.

Coyote Peterson has one boot off and a sock in his hand, and he's using it to lure in a predator. The predator is a baby red fox. more

It took a change of plans to get here. Coyote calls Alaska the hardest place he and his crew have filmed. There were wide lakes they explored by kayak, glacier melt streams that were hard to cross without getting soaked in icy water, and forests so thick that every animal had a place to hide. From the top of a stump he looks out at trees as far as the eye can see.

So the crew heads to Steve Kroschel's Wildlife Sanctuary, home to rescued and captive-raised animals like moose, weasels and even a wolverine. Coyote has worked with giant grizzly bears, ferocious badgers and what he calls spring-loaded bobcats. Mammals are the hardest, he says, because they almost never want to be held. And none has tested him like a baby red fox named Lupine.

Her enclosure looks like plain forest. Lupine comes over, very excited to have company, and Coyote starts in with a chattering ke-ke-ke-ke. These are fox calls Steve taught him. Steve has other sounds, too. One of them sounds like a turkey to Coyote, but Steve says he is talking mink.

A person holds a small dark-furred animal on one knee and reaches a hand toward it, with mountains in the background. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Steve, whose sanctuary this is, switches to what he calls mink language.

If Coyote can master the language of the fox, Steve tells him, he might become one of the skulk, which is what a group of foxes is called. His fox talk is a little off. So he tries a fox toy, a duck wing tied to a stick. "That is what you call fishing for a fox," he says. She almost has it, and then she's off, running laps around the enclosure.

Next, Coyote turns his hand into a mouse. He pushes it into a hole in the grass, squeaks and rustles, and Lupine pounces. "Ow," he says. She has bitten right down to the tip of his finger, only to find it is not a mouse. "Apparently I can speak mouse," he says. "Haven't quite yet learned how to speak fox."

An adult male interacting with a juvenile red fox in an outdoor natural setting, marked by shades of brown, orange, and green lighting. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Coyote Peterson has one boot off and a sock in his hand, and he's using it to lure in a predator.

The trick keeps working until she figures out she can't eat his fingers. Then comes the sock, which once worked wonders on an ocelot in Costa Rica. Lupine grabs it, and there's a real game of tug-of-war, until she loses interest and heads off toward Mario and his camera. "Mario, you made a buddy," Coyote says, one sock short. She rolls around on her back with Mario, and Coyote guesses she likes the shiny lens or the big fuzzy cover on the microphone.

A man in a green cap leans forward and looks down near a black object with a furry top. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — Lupine leaves the sock behind and rolls around by Mario and his fuzzy microphone.

Boot back on, Coyote tries following her with a GoPro on a gimbal. Red foxes are among the hardest animals in the world to spot, he says, and in his whole life he has seen maybe five in the wild, each for only a second. Playing with a baby one, he admits, is exhausting. No animal has worn him out more, and this one has more energy than any animal his crew has worked with.

For nearly 15 minutes they trail her around the enclosure. Then, for one short moment, Lupine rolls over on her back for a belly rub. "That's about the closest we've been all day," Coyote says, as she takes off again.

A man with a beard and a hat leans forward and looks at the ground near rocks and plants. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third. — After all the chasing, one quick belly rub is as near as Coyote gets.

After two hours of following a fox in circles, the crew calls it a wrap. Palling around with Lupine, Coyote says, is one of his fondest memories of Alaska.