Taexalia

wild.life

Dance of the Red Fox

We went for a walk yesterday morning and one of the differences between the greyhound and the humans was highlighted as we climbed the steps to the high field. His nose engaged and his body language hinted at the traces of something interesting that happened earlier, he sees first with his nose, then his eyes. With us, our eyes engaged first with him and then with the changes in the landscape we noticed... a small area of flattened grasses suggesting something, perhaps a deer, had sheltered there overnight... then feathers and blood and traces of a bird which told of a kill to sustain a life.

I have no idea what killed the bird, but foxes have been on my mind recently and I remembered the day I watched a red fox kill a bird... back in the days when fox sightings were easier - and they practically wrote this blog for me.

These days I see signs of foxes - droppings, leftovers of kills, holes leading off into the undergrowth too big for a rabbit. I see the patch of grass in the field that grows stronger and greener than the grass around it. The fertile patch marks the place where the landowner's henchmen outed the fox with a bright light at night and then shot it dead - not thirty paces from a row of houses - and left it to decompose. In their eyes a warning to other foxes, in mine a symbol of their disconnection from the Circle.

I've seen other foxes a couple of times, but I've seen plastic leftovers of shotgun cartridges littering the path near where they were living - and I wonder at their fate.

Farmers and landowners claim to be the stewards of the coutryside, to know it better than those of us in towns and cities - but they are often the destroyers and litterlouts themselves, motivated only by money.

We returned home and I thought about all of these things as I read a post by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés on her Facebook page, the part that spoke to me most was this:

"Some think all we tribal people made up our dances from scratch. Not so, we were taught by the animals. If you've ever wondered what your far back people's dances looked like, all you need do is know the animals of the land they lived on."

I know how foxes dance because they shared their secret lives with me once, but can I learn their dance? I wonder... and if I learn their dance, will I call in sightings of more than their deaths and their leftover prey?