The secret lives of Montreal's urban foxes

As the sun rose over a cool autumn morning, there was barely enough light to see it: a red fox sneaking behind a tall brick house.

The fox rummaged through the house’s garden, eventually poking its head into the dirt and reemerging with a mouthful of carrots. After pausing for a moment, the animal made off into a nearby wooded area.

It may feel like a scene lifted from the English countryside but fox sightings are becoming increasingly common in Montreal’s Shaughnessy Village, where circumstances have created a near-perfect habitat for the wily creatures.

Ernie Votour is a longtime resident of the west downtown neighbourhood. He first noticed a fox this spring while walking his dog along a grassy knoll that overlooks the Ville Marie Expressway.

“At first I thought it was a dog, I mean you never see anything like that in the city,” he said. “But then I noticed those beautiful colours. His eyes locked into mine and he just froze. It was amazing.”

Francois Côté, who has lived in the neighbourhood for over 40 years, said he only began hearing about fox sightings three years ago.

“I imagine they came here from the train tracks,” he said. “It seems to be an ideal area for the fox because now there is a whole family with him.”

Although city officials say foxes are rare in Montreal, urban environments provide the little carnivores with a number of advantageous circumstances. They have no natural predators to fear and there’s an abundance of rodents, plants and discarded food for them to eat.

The Shaughnessy Village has another built-in amenity for the red foxes – the Canadian Pacific railroad tracks allow them to move throughout the city’s east-west corridor without having to contend with people or cars.

The tracks link their downtown den to nearby green spaces like the 50-acre St. Jacques Cliff and the 18-hole Meadowbrook golf club just a few kilometers away.

“It’s actually quite likely the fox or foxes migrated into the city from the St. Jacques Cliff,” said Valérie De Gagné, a spokesperson for the city of Montreal.

“People aren’t allowed near the cliff so it’s an ideal place for wildlife to flourish. The last survey we took [in 2009] found that there was at least one fox living along the cliff.”

De Gagné said the city works to ensure the animals are protected and that complaints about the foxes are quite rare.

“They allow for more bio-diversity in the city and they keep Montreal’s rodent population in check,” she added.

But some say the overlapping of urban sprawl and wildlife habitat could be harming the species for generations to come.

“What’s happening here is the foxes are becoming more and more used to living in a predator-free environment with easy access to food,” said Concordia biology professor Robert Weladji, who specializes in animal migration.

“Over time their instincts become dulled and they aren’t able to survive in the wild anymore.”

Weladji points to the fact that the fox sightings have increased in past years as evidence that there is a risk of overpopulation.

“Without predators and with such favourable living conditions, you could start to see a situation where there are too many foxes and not enough for them to feed on.”

For now the family of foxes continues to thrive in the Shaughnessy Village, often at the expense of a few local gardens.

“This lady keeps complaining to me about her garden being dug up but I think that’s just a smokescreen,” Votour said. “I think she likes being able to see wildlife in her backyard. Sometimes I’ll see [a fox] run by with a squirrel in his mouth.

"You feel for the poor little thing but it’s nice to catch a glimpse of nature like that in the city.”

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Illustration by Chloe Cushman