He is about 2 years old, weighs about 11 pounds and appears to be in good health. Nearly everything else about him is a mystery. He doesn’t even have a name. For now, he is just “the red fox.”
He was found about a month ago aboard a huge ship meant to carry cars. In the course of a 3,600-mile voyage from the Port of Southampton in England to the Port of New York and New Jersey, crew members discovered him hidden among the regular cargo.
“A sly stowaway!” the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations wrote in a social media post.
Agriculture specialists with the agency and other government wildlife experts brought the fox to the Bronx Zoo, where staff members have experience rescuing wildlife that has been illegally trafficked into the area’s ports and airports. He remained there on Monday, dining on apples, sweet potatoes, insects and mice while awaiting a clean bill of health.
“All things considered, he’s doing pretty well,” Keith Lovett, a vice president and the director of animal programs at the zoo, said in an interview. The fox, he added, did not seem “stressed out” by his circumstances.
If, after a suitable quarantine period, additional tests have confirmed the fox’s fitness, “an appropriate long-term home” will be found, the zoo said in a news release.
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is among the most widespread carnivorous mammals in the world, the release said. It is native to Europe, Asia, North America and parts of Africa. In New York City, red foxes live primarily on Staten Island and in the Bronx, often in large parks, golf courses and overgrown lots, the Wildlife NYC website says.
Known for its reddish coat and bushy, white-tipped tail, the red fox has what the zoo called “remarkable adaptability” and can “thrive in environments ranging from forests and grasslands to urban areas” — and even, apparently, a massive ship packed with cars.
It is impossible to say for sure how the fox got onto the ship, the M/V Tijuca, which can hold up to 7,500 vehicles. Mark Simmonds, a spokesman for the British Ports Association, a trade group, said the animal may have boarded via the large ramp that is typically used to drive vehicles onto and off such ships. The loading and unloading occurs in restricted areas, he said, but a fox would have little trouble navigating any fencing and trotting aboard.
And what did the animal eat during his two-week journey, which began on Feb. 4? Although primarily carnivores, red foxes are opportunistic eaters with a highly flexible diet: rabbits, rodents, birds, bugs, fruits, berries, pretty much whatever is around. They don’t scoff at carrion, and, in cities, will scrounge happily through garbage.
“He must have been eating something,” Mr. Lovett said, noting that the fox did not show signs of starvation. Possibilities include produce and mice, if there were any aboard.
Making the trip may well have extended the red fox’s life. Members of the species typically live three to seven years in the wild but up to 15 in captivity or a sanctuary.
As the zoo noted in its release, people arriving in the New York area from other countries are sometimes caught trying to smuggle animals into the United States. Examples of animals trying to enter on their own — by air, land or sea — are harder to find.
The last animal to attract much notice after turning up on a cargo ship in the area appears to have been a deadly Indian cobra that arrived in Elizabeth, N.J., on a ship from Singapore in 2015. The snake was taken to the Bronx Zoo in poor shape and could not be saved.
While it is unclear why this red fox was at the Southampton port, its kind are plentiful in England, including in cities. Some people consider them a nuisance. One 2018 estimate put their total number in Britain at 357,000.
Eleanor Williams, a spokeswoman for the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust in Hampshire, England, said in an email that an organization researcher who studies fox behavior had never heard of one boarding a ship.
In a statement, Associated British Ports, which operates the Port of Southampton, praised the animal’s adventurous instincts.
Still, the company said: “Next time, we’d recommend it considers the Queen Mary 2, which offers the Southampton-to-New York route with considerably more comfort!”
Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk.
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