Red foxes adapt to life at the New Jersey Shore

[Donna]

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - It's just before 6 a.m., and the red fox is waiting by the tollbooth. And no, it doesn't have exact change.

The fox is small and sleek, an inarguably gorgeous creature, its delicately pointy-nosed face framed with black lines.

When Dave Turner is taking tolls at the base of the Ocean City-Longport Bridge on the Ocean City side, he's ready with a biscuit or two. Other times, it's Eddie Andress, whose bushy gray beard is an amusing counterpunch to the red fox's bushy tail, and who is known to bring chicken.

"I named him Bourbon," says Turner. "He eats right out of my hand." The fox and its siblings have been hanging out in the dunes near the bridge since spring, when, Turner believes, they were born to a pair of foxes that lived in, and returned to, the marsh area across from the bridge.

Foxes are common on the barrier islands, says Christina Kisiel, senior environmental specialist with the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife's Endangered and Nongame Species Program.

"They stay in the dunes, don't need a lot of space, dig a little den," she said. "They use the whole island to hunt. They're pretty adept at getting people's food - they're so cute, people love feeding them. In North Brigantine, the fishermen throw fish at them. . . . If they see a vehicle, they will start running out to check it out."

One recent morning, at the usual appointed hour of 6-ish, Mr. Fox, having been spotted darting around the dunes, approached the bridge and poked an orange plastic traffic cone with his nose to see if it was edible. Optimistically, it sauntered over to the lane in front of the tollbooth to check who was on duty.

Alas, on this day it was Paul Kessel, a substitute and not a fox feeder. "I'm not giving up my ham and cheese sandwich," he says.

The fox lingered, providing a brief transcendent moment to people traveling over the bridge. Then, narrowly dodging a truck, it gave up and ran off.

"They are so beautiful, people should be more appreciative," said a woman driving out of Ocean City. "God bless."

Wildlife specialist Kisiel does not study foxes. She studies endangered birds, such as the black skimmers that nest right near the bridge. Her interest in the foxes is in preventing them from eating the birds she is trying to protect.

[Shaky]

OCEAN CITY, N.J. - It's just before 6 a.m., and the red fox is waiting by the tollbooth. And no, it doesn't have exact change.

Lamont, you big dummy! I told you to get me some quarters.